It’s the movie phenomenon that had people talking not only at the water cooler, but even had people having fantasies about doing it on a water cooler.
Adrian Lyne’s FATAL ATTRACTION was the biggest film of 1987 and continued when it opened in the UK in January 1988 to big business and ongoing discussion.
New Yorker Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) is happily married to Beth (Anne Archer) and is the father to a little girl. He does legal work for a publishing firm and at a party to launch a new Japanese book, he meets Alex Forrest (Glenn Close).#
Called in to do some additional work at his firm whilst his wife and child are out in the country with his folks looking at a new house, he and Alex go for dinner, but pretty soon discover there is more than a starter in their passion, prompting a one-night stand.
Beth and daughter return home after the weekend unaware of Dan’s little dalliance, but Alex is not convinced of his dedication to marriage and family and begins stalking him and making all kinds of phone calls. Before long, the obsession starts to go beyond anything he wanted in one night….
Nominated for several Academy Awards including Best Picture (it lost out to Bernardo Bertolucci’s THE LAST EMPEROR in 1988’s Oscar ceremony), what it lacked in statues it gained in box-office. Douglas would win the Best Actor that year for his iconic 80s character Gordon Gekko. Close was also nominated for Best Actress, one of several including the recent THE WIFE, for which she lost out again to Olivia Colman for THE FAVORITE.
Archer got nominated as Best Supporting Actress in a film that is of its’ time, but still packs a punch, particularly with the brief but explicit sex scenes.