Ana de Armas has been in a lot of spectacular pieces throughout her star-studded career, but there have also been some that just failed to fare well with audiences worldwide. While she is currently riding high on the tides of fame gifted to her by her recently released masterpiece Ballerina, some of her past projects seem to have wasted her true talent.
One of these very flicks includes her 2022 thriller mystery with Ben Affleck that brutally disappointed fans and critics alike: Deep Water. In fact, what makes that piece even more disappointing is the fact that the same filmmaker who tamed that movie also made a similar Kim Basinger flick that the Armas starrer couldn’t live up to: 9 1/2 Weeks.
Deep Water truly wasted Ana de Armas’ talent
When it was announced that filmmaker Adrian Lyne would be returning to the screens with a movie filled with an ensemble including the likes of beloved talents like Ana de Armas and Ben Affleck, the buzz was inevitably as loud as ever, and fans couldn’t anticipate stronger for the flick. However, its release proved to be nothing short of disappointing.
An erotic psychological thriller based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1957 novel of the same name, Deep Waters, features Vic Van Allen, a well-to-do husband (played by Affleck), who allows his wife, Melinda Van Allen (played by Armas), to have affairs to avoid a divorce. But when her lovers start to disappear, Vic becomes the prime suspect in the crime.
As interesting as that prospect sounds, it served as Lyne’s return to filmmaking after a 20-year absence since Unfaithful in 2002, which was his last film before that. However, it turned out to be a disappointment when the flick failed to live up to the promise of an erotic thriller, being deemed a disjointed take on an unhappy couple’s open marriage instead.
To put it lightly, the movie, which was released on Hulu, fared so badly with fans and critics alike that it was left at a mere 35% critical and 25% general audience score on the Tomatometer. What makes that flick’s performance even more disappointing are all the previous pieces from Lyne, which include the likes of the 1986 movie, 9 1/2 Weeks.
Adrian Lyne’s other pieces make Deep Water a disappointment
While the fact that Deep Water has been criticized for being a disjointed and slow-moving movie lacking a strong narrative, what makes it an even more questionable piece from Adrian Lyne is his old works. For one, despite Armas’ intense performance, the movie failed to deliver the tension and excitement of the director’s earlier works.
Like his movie with Kim Basinger, 9 1/2 Weeks, released back in 1986, the erotic drama film saw two strangers—Mickey Rourke‘s Wall Street trader John and Basinger’s art gallery assistant Elizabeth—embark on a s*xual odyssey for nine and a half weeks. But when she realizes he doesn’t share any of his life with her besides s-x, Elizabeth has to make a decision about what she wants from their relationship.
Although it didn’t fare well at the box offices initially, making only $6.7 million domestically on a budget of $18 million (per The Numbers) and receiving mixed reviews, the movie still lived up to its erotic-romance theme and has since gained recognition as a cult classic.
Then there are other pieces like 1987’s Fatal Attraction, also tamed by Lyne. The film starred Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, and Anne Archer in the lead and touched on similar themes as the 2022 flick: a husband getting involved with another woman in spite of being married and her setting out to ruin his marriage to have him all to herself.
This one has a nice 74% critical and 72% general audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It was widely recognized and successful at its release, making a whopping $320 million on a budget of only $14 million (per The Numbers). All of Lyne’s past works further prove that Armas was truly wasted in that 2022 flick, especially after witnessing her spectacularity in her recent masterpiece, Ballerina.
Deep Water can currently be streamed on Hulu.
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