Elegant as ever - to a fault - plot-centric Lyne seems more concerned with how things happen than why they do. Ripley” writer’s grounded sense of psychology, putting his emphasis instead on suspense - well, that and snails, which occupy a surprising amount of the movie’s attention (but more on that in a minute). But it turns out the filmmaker lacks the “Talented Mr. In terms of material, Lyne’s sensibility would seem an ideal fit with Highsmith’s, given their shared preoccupation with jealousy and illicit desire. Films like “Gone Girl” and “Fifty Shades of Grey” are nothing if not knockoffs of the classic Lyne aesthetic (which treats sex more seriously than its softcore competition), pushing the envelope farther than the director is willing to go with this particular project. Late last century, Lyne had a long, successful run of portraying complex sexual dynamics through grown-up eyes, but it’s been 20 years since “Unfaithful” - he spent two decades fighting to get this film off the ground - and the now-octogenarian helmer’s influence on subsequent sizzlers has undermined his own capacity to shock.

This erotic thriller is still sexy and plenty entertaining, mind you, but it’s just not very useful insofar as what it says about real relationships.

Vic ( Ben Affleck) and Melinda ( Ana de Armas) have an open marriage, but her … distractions have a habit of disappearing, and so do pretty much all ties to recognizable human behavior in the “Fatal Attraction” director’s unexpectedly coolheaded adaptation of the 1957 Patricia Highsmith novel for Hulu. There’s something missing from Adrian Lyne’s “ Deep Water,” and it’s not just the body of Martin McRae, the last unfortunate rival to get a little too friendly with Vic Van Allen’s wife.

Deep water patricia highsmith review