Movie Reviews: Fatale

Fatale
directed by Deon Taylor

This new thriller is a neo-noir which compares well with the forties and fifties noir films that are its ancestors and somewhat less so with the Shannon Whirry and Shannon Tweed eighties and nineties erotic thrillers that are its more immediate antecedents. The title (and much of the story) put me in mind both of the femme fatale often found in such films and the Michael Douglas/Glenn Close movie Fatal Attraction. You have seen the themes and plots in this movie before. However, as some storytellers insist, perhaps ultimately there only a few archetypes which are shared over and over again. I thought that this story was well acted and generally well written. 

Again, as is common in the genre, there are a few things which are obvious to the viewer which aren't obvious to the protagonist.  A usual feature of these sorts of movies is that the protagonist is not a man who is filled with rectitude. He's a man who makes mistakes.  You might even say that he's a man who indulges some sins. But in noir films he's rarely the worst person depicted on screen. He's usually a man who thinks, often accurately, that his choices are limited or constrained. Thus, like people in real life, the noir protagonist had to choose what he sees as the least bad outcome. We've all had to do that at times I think. 

So what I am saying is that if you want to watch and enjoy these types of films you need to turn off any moral judgment for the film's running time. People are self-interested. They take shortcuts. They lie. And sometimes they do even less moral things.

Derrick Tyler (Michael Ealy) is a Los Angeles based sports agent who has built up his business to the point where the larger white owned management companies are starting to take notice of the competitive threat that he faces. Derrick is motivated not just to become wealthier and more powerful but to prove to the world that Black people can be successful off the playing field as well as on it.  

Besides, Derrick doesn't like anyone telling him to what to do. If he had wanted to be an employee somewhere he wouldn't have struggled and fought to build his own business, now would he? Derrick's partner Rafe Grimes (Mike Colter from Luke Cage) hears and understands that. However Rafe notes that the amounts of money the friends are being offered to sell the firm are now beyond the you'll never need to work again point and moving towards your children will never need to work at all level. So Rafe thinks Derrick might want to reconsider. Just saying. 

But Derrick has deeper problems than a partner who wants to sell. Derrick's trophy wife Tracie (Damaris Lewis) has lately been demonstrating some really nasty disrespectful attitudes towards Derrick. She's also been more frequently absent from home. Tracie insisted on keeping her realtor position though her earnings are dwarfed by Derrick's. Tracie explains these recent absences as required by her realtor job. At night. Yeah. So Derrick can't help but wonder if another man is rocking his chair. Is there another king bee buzzing around Tracie's honeypot? Is another mule kicking in his stall? Is another crosscut saw buried in Tracie's wood? Is another...well you get the idea.

When Derrick and Rafe attend a friend's Las Vegas bachelor party, Derrick shares his fears with Rafe. Rafe thinks that Derrick just has the seven year itch. Rafe advises that as they are in Vegas, Derrick needs to pretend that he's not married and go do what he used to do.

Thus primed, Derrick cozies up to a friendly woman named Val (Hilary Swank) wearing a low cut dress. They chat. They dance. Well Val is interested and says so. Derrick is interested but not so interested that he wants anything coming back to him. He tells Val that his name is Darren and that he's from Seattle. The duo return to Val's room where they do the do. A lot. The next morning, when a chastened, more rational, and guilt-ridden Derrick attempts to leave Val's room he finds that Val has locked his cell phone in the room safe and won't give him the combination until he gives her what she needs again. Swank skillfully portrays this demand as teetering right on the edge of pathetic and dangerous. It could be both. 

Likely feeling justified in having used a fake name, Derrick does what he needs to do, gets his phone, and hightails it back to Los Angeles. There he swallows his pride and does everything he can to repair his relationship with his wife. 

One night Derrick and Tracie suffer a home invasion. Well it's a strange home invasion because the alarm didn't go off. There isn't a group of people in the home. There's just one large masked man who seems more interested in killing Derrick than in stealing anything. Derrick may not be the most brolic man in the world but he manages to fight off the intruder. When the police arrive Derrick is shocked to see that the detective in charge of the investigation is "Val" or as her government id shows, decorated LAPD Detective Valerie Quinlan. Val is also shocked to see Derrick. And by shocked I mean Val's not happy that Derrick lied to her. Although Val tells Derrick she has no interest in revealing their one night stand to Tracie because that would harm her law enforcement career, she is obviously not done with Derrick. Val starts showing up at odd hours to ask questions, tell Derick in front of Tracie that Derrick seems familiar to her, or to ask Tracie questions in private.

This film has a fair amount of sex and violence. The director and writer(s) also weave in some commentary about police abuse and political corruption. Fatale has a tremendous number of twists and surprises. Few of them felt forced. The viewer may have some questions about just who the true villain(s) is(are), which is always fun for these type of movies. Tyrin Turner (Caine from Menace II Society) is Derrick's streetwise cousin who can always count on Derrick for financial assistance. Michael Pino (Law and Order) is Val's estranged ex husband. 

Swank's Val is never obviously needy or unstable like the similar character in Fatal Attraction, she's not going to boil any bunny rabbits or sit in a room turning the lamp on and off. But she may see herself as a woman scorned. She may. But she is also a professional. Or is she? Ealy's Derrick is all furrowed brow and puppy eyes. But he has more problems than he realizes. This was good, not great entertainment.