"Deep Water", the erotic thriller that failed to build suspense | Review and Analysis

Mystery/Psychological Thriller - 2022

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***Spoilers Ahead***

The film, Deep Water, was interesting at times, yet fell flat in other areas, leaving me filled with unanswered questions at the end. Featuring stars such as Ben Affleck and Ana De Armas, as well as marking the return of a 20-year hiatus from director Adrian Lyne, Deep Water had all the ingredients to be a successful psychological, erotic thriller that surprised the audience, bringing fresh “guilty pleasure” content to adult viewers. Sex, discussions of affairs or a potentially open marriage, obsessive husband with unique hobbies, and, most glaringly, murder mysteries.

The interesting themes, along with the initial ambiguity of the beginning scenes, made me excited to question the film, making guesses to unravel what I assumed would be the plot twist – who the murderer was and the mysterious nature of Melinda (played by Ana De Armas). Unfortunately, however, all secrets regarding the murderer were revealed very early on in an anti-climactic, extremely predictable fashion, with the last half of mystery, Melinda, remaining simply an underwritten character with no satisfying revelations.

Deep Water, based off the 1957 novel by Patricia Highsmith, was adapted by Zach Helm and Sam Levinson (Euphoria) into the 2022 film. Having not read the novel but studied up on some key details from it after seeing the movie, it became quite clear that heaps of plot hole filling, essential character-building information was left out. To provide context, the movie features a dysfunctional married couple, Vic and Melinda, who have an equally as unsettling daughter, Trixie.

Melinda frequently engages in very public affairs, flaunting her lovers in front of her husband who, sometimes, seems infuriated, yet other times, appears to be turned on due to her reckless behavior. When her lovers begin going missing, fellow citizen, Don, suspects Vic (who previously joked about killing Melinda’s last lover), with even Melinda screaming accusations towards Vic at a party after another lover of hers had been found dead in the pool.

However, Melinda, despite the loss and accusation towards her husband, continues her life as normal, partaking in intimate moments with him while still seeking out another lover and playing the dutiful mother. She begins working with Don, jointly hiring a private investigator to pursue info on Vic, who focuses his efforts on his snail farm that is capable of poisoning people if fully fed (his words). The mystery behind Vic is revealed early on, the battle between Don and Vic comes to a head in a climax ending, and Melinda still remains a mystery as to her feelings, awareness, and overall participation towards Vic’s activities.

Was their marriage open or was Melinda cheating?

Vic, a grimacing, seemingly calm and smart man, is repeatedly presented to their small-town community as a husband helplessly loyal to his blatantly uncaring, carefree wife. Melinda, on the other hand, acts as a maybe-unsuspecting fatale sending a slew of men to their deaths, all due from seeking intimate attention she feels she is not receiving from her husband. While in the novel, the relationship dynamics between the two is explained as an open marriage, the film left a question mark towards Vic’s agreement in Melinda’s activities. He and the whole town are not kept in secret of her sexual engagements, as she makes no attempt to hide it, but it becomes more of a question regarding if he’s even agreed to it, desperate to keep her to avoid a divorce, or deluding himself from what’s going on.

While still never fully addressing the prior info on the basic framework of their relationship, we watch as Vic becomes clearly annoyed and frustrated, developing the probable assumption that he’s unhealthily striving to keep her out of intense, obsessive desires for her. The men either introduce themselves to Vic, or Melinda simply invites them to her house, openly flirting with her lovers in front of her husband as he calmly watches on with a suppressed jealousy building within. She, throughout the film, makes comments stating how at least he’s “never bored” with her and how she’s striving for passion that’s nonexistent in their marriage. This begs the question towards what are both Vic and Melinda’s reasonings for this current arrangement?

Why did Vic put up with Melinda's affairs? What were Melinda's reasons?

If Vic was CLEARLY obsessed with Melinda, what was his prior motivations for willingly watching as she engages in these affairs despite it hurting him? How was Melinda left feeling so unsatisfied and as if Vic doesn’t care for her in a relationship that centered around his obsession? It feels as though the film intended to showcase a toxic relationship that functioned on chaos and intensity, hence, erotic thriller. Melinda felt like Vic didn’t show enough passion or love her enough, causing her to seek out other men to fulfill her desires, simultaneously flaunting them in front of Vic to get a reaction out of him.

She, seemingly, wasn’t aware of his murderous tendencies, but thrived off his jealousy and would initiate sex with him afterwards, before moving on quickly to the next man after the previous one “mysteriously” went missing. Vic, similarly, appeared to hate Melinda’s wild behaviors and desired a monogamous family dynamic, yet found sexual excitement after murdering the men that engaged with his wife.

Clearly an unhealthy dynamic in which both feel like their needs and desires are being unmet, but sparks and passion blaze high after partaking in scandalous, murderous, outside activities. While an interesting concept, it was extremely hard to decipher within the overly conflicting, all over the place writing that left Vic boring and confusing, Melinda too mysterious and underwritten, and, overall, hallow characters and development with each other.

Melinda's underwritten character and lack of suspenseful storytelling

This, thus, leads to the biggest complaints I had for this film, which is the writing of Melinda and the lack of suspense from the story reveal. Going in, I assumed it to be a story where Vic was accused of being the murderer with all evidence pointing to him, but the reveal being that it wasn’t him and, instead, an unsuspecting individual. Given how creepy their daughter, Trixie, was due from her intelligent insights and frustration towards her mother’s male visitors, I seriously had assumed the plot twist would be she had murdered the men while Vic covered it.

Plus, seeing how the kid was mentioned multiple times and shown to be quite intelligent, even curious to know how her father potentially murdered the men, I figured that would come into play in a massive reveal at the end; but it didn’t. The film, instead, showed early on that Vic really was the murderer, and their blaringly obvious framing of him as the potential killer was simply just poor, anti-climactic writing.

Moreover, his snail farm never even came into play except to make a reference towards them being poisonous if the snails weren’t starved beforehand, making it a pointless set up meant to add to his “creepy” factor, yet felt flat due to insignificance towards the overall plot.

Melinda's awareness of Vic's crimes

Throughout the film, Melinda remained incredibly conflicting and mysterious, with viewers never getting a perspective into the kind of character she is. It’s clear she’s unsatisfied in her marriage and finds thrill in her husband’s jealousy, but what was her intention behind hiring a private investigator? Working with Don? Accusing her husband in front of the town and police of murder, yet seemingly burning evidence of his crimes at the end of the film? She found a victim’s wallet, went to the area he hid the body with Vic and their daughter, potentially informed Don where to find Vic as he was reburying the body, and knew her lovers went missing after showing them to her husband.

She, very clearly, at least suspected him of these crimes, but it’s unclear whether she knew the whole time. She had made it a point to let him know she’s smarter than he thinks after he stated he liked intelligent women, possibly alluding that she’s aware of his criminal activities more than she lets on. However, there was never clear confirmation, and everything was left very ambiguous in the end.

Theories and Final Thoughts

In my theory, I feel as though Melinda had awareness towards it, found attraction to him willing to kill for her, so she continuously involved herself with outside men any time she felt her marriage began to lack in passion. Once Don began suspecting Vic after Melinda’s lovers had been found dead, Melinda wanted to ensure an alibi that would protect her in case of his arrest. Outing him and letting her clear distrust in him be known to the public was a backup plan to show she was not involved in his crimes, as she wouldn’t blast him like that if she was an accomplice.

Heck, who’s to say flaunting these men in front of the town wasn’t a double-edged sword that sparked passion in her relationship, while giving motive towards Vic should outside suspicions arise, leaving her with a safety net of being simply the cheating wife? Melinda was smart, mysterious, and she made it known. Maybe by informing Don of Vic’s location, she knew Vic would kill Don, ridding them of the only one who suspected Vic and threatened their dangerous cycle. Burning the evidence ensured Vic not getting caught in case of a police search, so maybe Melinda was truly a secret mastermind behind the scenes? There were lots of hidden clues in this film, and equally as many plot holes that fell flat and left characters, such as Melinda, underwritten, requiring theories to determine her purpose throughout the film.

Overall, I’d say the film was interesting but disappointing, leaving me and those I watched with feeling unsure of what the twist, suspense, and point of the film was. The actors did a great job, though the script needed more development for its story and characters.