Synopsis
For Dan Gallagher, life is good. He is on the rise at his New York law firm, is happily married to his wife, Beth, and has a loving daughter. But, after a casual fling with a sultry book editor named Alex, everything changes. Jilted by Dan, Alex becomes unstable, her behavior escalating from aggressive pursuit to obsessive stalking. Dan realizes that his main problem is not hiding his affair, but rather saving himself and his family.
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Cast
- Michael DouglasDan Gallagher
- Glenn CloseAlexandra "Alex" Forrest
- Anne ArcherBeth Gallagher
- Ellen Hamilton LatzenEllen Gallagher
- Stuart PankinJimmy
- Ellen FoleyHildy
- Fred GwynneArthur
- Tom BrennanHoward Rogerson
- Lois SmithMartha
- Mike NussbaumBob Drimmer
Recommendations
- 90
Washington Post
This is a spectacularly well-made thriller. It is an odd thing, really -- the movie is sexy and at the same time a warning about the costs of sex. - 90
Variety
The screws are tightened expertly in this suspenseful meller about a flipped-out femme who makes life hell for the married man who scorns her. - 80
The New York Times
Mr. Lyne takes a brilliantly manipulative approach to what might have been a humdrum subject and shapes a soap opera of exceptional power. - 80
Washington Post
Fatal Attraction rings the changes on your atavistic emotions. Walking out of the theater, you might have a sudden desire to club a woolly mammoth and hide your family in a dark cave -- away from people like Glenn Close. - 80
Empire
Two absolutely riveting performances and a smart reversal of the usual male-female stalker scenario leave behind a nasty taste and an unforgettable cinema experience. - 80
Time
Well-made fictions like Fatal Attraction prosper because they seem more persuasive than fact. - 75
TV Guide Magazine
This story of an extramarital fling that turns into a nightmare begins as a well-crafted psychological thriller but degenerates into a misogynistic thrill-fest in its closing moments. - 63
Chicago Sun-Times
Fatal Attraction is a spellbinding psychological thriller that could have been a great movie if the filmmakers had not thrown character and plausibility to the winds in the last minutes to give us their version of a grown-up "Friday the 13th."
