"Fatal Affair" Review: An Entertaining Entanglement That Never Was
Fatal Affair is the latest in a long line of supposed salacious, psychological thrillers. Unfortunately, this turns out to be a flaccid film that will leave you talking to the screen for all the wrong reasons. Nia Long and Omar Epps do their best phoned in performances to keep this afloat. So in a sense, Netflix did it again! It cranked out some get with your boo and laugh entertainment.
Let me catch you up quickly so I can get to the jokes. Ellie (Long) is a high powered attorney, and David (Epps) is the hacker companies call on when they need something to be found. After running into each other in a chance work encounter, after years of not seeing each other since college, David wants that old thing back! That old thing never was, but for a brief moment in a club, after drinks, lonely Ellie almost crosses the line of her marriage to Marcus (Stephen Bishop) and hooks up with David. That little taste of almost heaven sends David on a mission to make Ellie his.
That’s the set up for the movie. So you know how the rest of it goes. We slowly see David’s narcissism and anger come to the forefront over a series of multiple calls, texts, “chance” encounters and watching Ellie through windows that should have blinds drawn. David makes it clear that he and Ellie can work it out and Marcus doesn’t have to know. While Ellie refuses, David only amps up the possibility of bringing her marriage to an end.
This movie doesn’t provide anything new for the genre. Part of the problem is that the moments that actually make you start to engage with the film seriously, end almost as quickly as they begin. Moments of tension and suspense aren’t held out long enough, but they are sprinkled throughout the film. Nia Long attempts to bring some emotion to her role as Ellie. After all being an attorney who is successful enough to have a house on the beach and her own firm, but stupid enough to entertain a mad man takes skill! I did enjoy seeing Omar Epps do his best to channel Bishop! Having got the juice 28 years ago, I guess he finally decided to prove it.
It’s not that this movie is the worst of the genre. It’s just that Fatal Affair isn’t quite abysmal and it isn’t that good. So I highly suggest you grab your bae or some friends and some wine for this one! It will be entertaining. Here’s my rating and some extras for you.
Rating: C-
Top 8 things my wife and I said to the screen:
“This is stupid!”
“Why don’t you just tell your husband!?”
“Now if you know he’s a hacker, why would you send an email?”
“If he’s a hacker, why doesn’t he have a password on his phone?”
“Omar is trying!”
“Poor Stephen Bishop! He done got to’ up in this movie! “
“Stab him! Stab him! Awww, come on!”
“Get the gun!”
Twitter quips that had me rollin’:
