#maybe i'll keep watching but like my suspension of disbelief is very much gone

[transhawks]

i tried to watch midsommar but I'm like...too ashkenazi to not be frightened from the start. Like the moment someone tells me "european pagan faiths", I'm out of there. Sorry, I have SOME self preservation.

[darringauthier]

Fatale (2020)

Genre: Thriller

Who's In It: Hilary Swank,Michael Ealy, Mike Colter, Damaris Lewis, Tyrin Turner, Danny Pino

Who Directed It: Deon Taylor

Plot: After a one-night stand, a successful married man finds himself entangled in a cunning police detective's latest investigation.

Run Time: 1 Hour 42 Minutes

IMDB Score: 5.4

Metascore: 42

Why I Watched It: The trailer looked fine enough, I'm a big fan of Michael Ealy, so underrated and under used in my opinion.

How I Watched It: Starz Canada

Random Thoughts: I'll just throw this out there it's weird seeing certain actors in genre films, or I should say Oscar winners in B-Movies, not against it but sometimes it's like having peanut butter with ketchup, both are fine on their own but together just weird. I will just say this I don't think Hiliary Swank would have been an actor I would have thought of for this role.

Also this is another trailer that pretty much gives you the whole movie in two minutes. Also this isn't as big of a Fatal Attraction knock-off as the trailer makes it seem to be.

Don't like that a poster kind of like the vibe just it just doesn't click with the movie.

What I Like: A kind of rule I try to keep with watching and discussing movies is talk about the movie they gave you and not the one you think they should have given you. I think there is a very fun batshit crazy movie that could have been made and it almost comes close but it's just not there. Also this movie should have been more fun, this is a very somber, serious B-Movie. So I know this is in the what I liked part, so I let me say something positive, I liked the idea, this is an attempt at a sexy film noir, now we don't get either of those genres much anymore. This is a weird film for me to critic cause this is what I call a "but" movie, I'll start saying I like this film but, this was good but the casting was off, see what I'm saying. The best part for me was not knowing where this was going, if you take the trailer off the table this film goes in some different directions. The standout for me was Michael Ealy, he does everything that is asked of him, he plays a great guy way over his head. It's one of those movie where the lead might not be perfect but everyone else around him is terrible.

Now I will have more to talk about this is the what I didn't like part but for me Hilary Swank is miscast, she's game and her and Ealy really try the thing that hurts them and the film is they don't have sexual chemistry but when they go against each other they shine cause they're two good actors.

In a film like this you get a lot of set up, we get twists and turns and I think in the last act the film started to get fun and started to get a little crazy not crazy enough to make this a must watch but enough to make you ask what if they did the damn thing.

What I Didn't Like: The film has one huge flaw and it's the huge suspension of disbelief they ask the audience for, the basic set up that is in the trailer, that a guy has a one night stand then something bad happens and the cop on the case is the cop he had sex with, oh and he's married. They could have made this work, but they have it that he goes to Vegas not the city he lives in and has this one night stand and it so happens this women is from the same city and is the cop assigned to his case. If this was going to work have the case first and then have them have a fling then have the twists and turns.

I said earlier that this isn't as big a knock off of Fatal Attraction and it's not but in one way it is and that's how the female lead is written, in both cases it would have worked better if they were total psychos, I thought here it would have been good if Ealy was more the bad guy. Swank does try but it's very cliched. I'll also get to Swank being miscast, she's a good actress but not right for this role, it's weird but having a very good actor does hurt some roles, I think if she would have gone all out and maybe did little camp or like a 10% Nic Cage performance it might have worked better. If comes off as her slumming or trying to show a different side, it just doesn't fully work.

The other key thing that hampers the film is they throw way too much plot into this, we have so many twists and turns and sub-plots that it feels over stuffed and the film loses focus. I liked the third act but the ending was pretty much by the book.

Final Thoughts: This is very much a mixed bag, it's not a bad film but it doesn't fully work. A rare case where if you got maybe lesser actors and put less into a movie it might have been better. This could have been a fun B-Movie but it ends up being an interesting miss.

Rating: 5/10