‘Deep Water’ Film Review: Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas’ Marital Passion Goes to Dark Places
thewrap.comlot of spying.During a casual chat with Melinda’s current dalliance, Joel (Brendan C. Miller, TNT’s “Animal Kingdom”), Vic informs the young man that his predecessor, presumed missing, is actually dead.
Vic then takes responsibility for the murder in a very kidding-not-kidding kind of way. (Vic is blasé about the fact that the computer chip he invented is now used in drone warfare, so his attachment to the sanctity of human life is questionable.) As the bodies pile up, we have to wonder if Vic is indeed dispatching all of them or if there’s some other explanation.
And if he is doing it, is it purely out of jealousy, or is it because Melinda finds this scenario a turn-on?The questions, for the most part, are more interesting than the answers, but Lyne knows how to bring a palpable frisson to this kind of material, from de Armas’ portrayal of Melinda (imagine a combination of Elizabeth Taylor’s characters in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “BUtterfield 8”) to a wildly overqualified supporting ensemble, including Tracy Letts, Lil Rel Howery, Dash Mihok, and Kristen Connolly. (Melinda has a taste for younger, blankly attractive men, so it’s no surprise when Finn Wittrock pops up as her way-back-when first lover.)Affleck, for his part, finds ways to convey menace without merely relying on gnashing his teeth, and he absolutely commits to both the anger and the lust that Melinda’s misbehavior summons in Vic.
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