There is nothing wrong with genre movies; low on budget but high on tropes. The kind where much of the budget went towards renting the clothes actors wear or the rental cars they drive, sometimes that's all you want in an afternoon on your couch. Netflix's "Fatal Affair" simultaneously fails and succeeds as one, an effective eighty nine minute trip down the familiar lanes of love, sex, and violence that plays out so quickly you're left either laughing at the gaps in logic or believing them.
Nia Long plays Ellie who's, you guessed it, living the perfect life. Attentive husband, beautiful daughter, and of course, a successful career as a lawyer. Yet she's unhappy, for reasons unexplained outside of generic babble like "... the person sleeping next to you feels like a complete stranger."
Soon we find her on her last assignment at her current firm, before leaving to start her own, and she runs across David, played by Omar Epps, a newly hired new cyber security(?) expert. They (of course!) have a past, having gone to college together, and after a girls night gone wrong, they end up almost having intercourse in a nightclub bathroom (how romantic). This is where the movie falls apart, as it never establishes Ellie's motivation to consider the affair. Up until now (and throughout the film), her husband Marcus (Stephen Bishop) has been nothing but affectionate and understanding.
Is she bored in bed? Is he having an affair also? Where exactly is the trouble in paradise?! The filmmakers where either too lazy to consider such basic backstories, or too innocent to consider such scandalous inclinations; it's trash without being trashy, which is often the only reason to watch garbage.
It's neither smart nor exploitative, in fact, it's so devoid of vice that you find yourself wondering why this didn't debut on some basic-cable channel instead of the streaming giant, complete with a "some material may be inappropriate for children" disclaimer. Aside from some very brief shots of clothed sex, all your perverted appetite has to munch on is the suggestion that sex did happen.
There is mild salvation for Ellie once she leaves David premature, shirt untucked and all, and for the remainder of the runtime she's shown broken as she hides the liaison from her family and friends. David, on the other hand, goes from being mildly frisky to complete stalker, escalating from simply spying to dating her best friend so he can get in her house, within a matter of scenes. Omar is pretty decent here, able to show pounds of rage just beneath his calm demeanor, and he plays what little development is provided for his creeping with an understated intensity. Nia is also acceptable, keeping some level of authority in her character despite the material giving her nothing to work with except to look worried and talk on her phone.
How do you rate this film then, how many stars is fair? That's impossible since it doesn't play fair- this was obviously a "paycheck" movie for everyone, going through the motions so they can pay next month's rent in Hollywood as they wait for a better script to come. It's bad and doesn't deliver the goods, but it never insults you into hating it.
For all its wrongs, "Fatal Affair" does remain watchable. The plot, as derivative as it is, does feature several twists just to make sure you're still paying attention, and the production is relatively slick. It has the look of a more expensive film, one where more interesting things happening to better actors. But I was duped into its silliness, an hour and a half of my life gone that I'll never get back, and I slumped off of my couch not terribly upset with that.
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