Deep Water
20TH CENTURYA strange deal between a married couple to keep themselves afloat is what sets Deep Water apart from the usual humdrum dramatics of Ben Affleck and whichever A-list counterpart is exploring his leading man this year. Ana de Armas is a superb choice but wasted in the strangely obtuse feature from director Adrian Lyne. It is plausible to think that Deep Water has honest intentions of exploring an interesting new wave of what is and is not taboo for modern marriage. Naturally, Lyne never makes it that far, because his cast isn’t exactly dying to tell the story of a man who has given up hope of rekindling any spark with his wife and instead lets her run off with other lovers so she does not permanently vacate the family home.
It’s an odd run of form for Affleck and de Armas, both feel off with one another and themselves. Amazon Studios present the affable and completely fair assessment of a loveless marriage and the wild strokes a couple may take to rekindle feeling for one another, but it hasn’t the theme or structure to present it potently enough. Here is another setlist of loved-up leads falling in and out of it with one another for no particular reason. Seeing Affleck make a formal display in the drama genre once again is reassuring and seeing him grow into the role of Vic Van Allen at least has some interesting components to it, but the “Sadfleck” range approaches much of the tender scenes once again. Unable to grip the realm beyond it, Affleck is doomed to spend these products shuffling around fancy apartments, fawning for actresses much, much younger than he.
But no matter, because even if it were the central focus, Deep Water doesn’t consider the ramifications of Melinda Van Allen (de Armas) or Vic Van too much. Not because it doesn’t want to be too harsh but because it doesn’t have much to talk of. Tracy Letts and Finn Wolfhard make appearances, as does Lil Rey Howery, but none of it is that interesting. Affleck’s uncomfortable disposition at the idea of his wife being intimate with others is made clear and doesn’t have the impact it should. An audience member may have the natural instinct to feel sorry for Vic Van Allen, but it is hard to feel sorry for placards and one-note characters that drink, wear suits and care for their family. Deep Water soon becomes intimately uninteresting.
It is as murky as the river that shakes out the title card. It is a dirty relationship too, not in the usual sense of erotic thriller but in the sense of completely covered in grime and filth left over from old films. Affleck and de Armas explore the relatively short layers of chemistry they have with one another in a thriller that should take on the role of Gossip Girl or The Girl on the Train but never has the assurance of its director to do so. Instead, it is the usual banal flavouring of upper-middle-class parties, swooning over the wives and lives of others and trying to come up with a solution to problems that usually end either in divorce or unhappy reconciliation. Deep Water isn’t going to surprise anyone with what it is doing, what it intends to do or why it makes characters this boring so infatuated with one another.