Word: dan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Paramount, which also released the year's No. 1 and No. 3 films (Beverly Hills Cop II and The Untouchables), is getting more than that. People can't stop talking about this movie, arguing about its characters, seeing in Dan, Beth and Alex creepy visions of themselves and their old flames. "Everybody can identify with obsessive love," says Co-Producer Sherry Lansing. "All of us have made a call in the middle of the night when we shouldn't have, or driven by somebody's house when we shouldn't have. I've never boiled a rabbit...
...monster? Alex Forrest, creature of the id. And who are the heroes? An American family, right or wrong, weak or strong, Dan or Beth. And how does a film with no surefire stars, no space-age special effects, no ringing affirmation of the human spirit, no discernible pretensions toward art, no unanimous blessing from the critics -- and not a single teenager among its cast of characters -- luck into the national bloodstream? By tapping the current mood of sexual malaise with a cautionary -- indeed, reactionary -- tale about an errant husband, a faithful wife and a career woman unlucky in love...
Like any phenomenal film, Fatal Attraction transforms a theater full of strangers into a community: confidant to Dan, cheerleader to Beth, lynch mob for Alex. And they leave the movie with golden word of mouth. "I saw a lot of couples looking at each other sideways as they walked out," says Jim Stegall, 35, a Miami ad salesman. "The meaning of that look was obvious: Don't even think about having an affair." Director Lyne says, "I've had men ring me up and say, 'Thanks a million, buddy, you've ruined it for us.' " A Manhattan psychoanalyst told...
...test for everyone who sees it." Is Alex worth our sympathy, pity, fear, loathing, or all of the above? Outside the Evergreen Theater in suburban Chicago, Rochelle Major says, "I had to believe that Alex had been hurt deeply before. She was lonely, didn't have a family like Dan did, and when he wanted to get her out of his life, she just went nuts on him." But once the horror-movie mechanism begins turning in the last two reels of Fatal Attraction, the audience revels in its hatred of Alex's villainy. "Alex is sick," says Ned Tanen...
...right up to the "surprise" ending that most Americans must by now know by heart. (No peeking at the next five paragraphs if you haven't seen the film.) Start with a Manhattan marriage, radiant in its yup-scale domesticity. Beth (Anne Archer) gets dressed for a party -- sexy. Dan walks the dog -- cute. Daughter Ellen (Ellen Hamilton Latzen) crawls into bed with Mom -- poignant. To an outsider, their life must look like a New Age greeting card...