Fatal Attraction

Lbnc2021 · 28/03/2021 22:40

I love it, it’s my guilty pleasure. But yes it is ridiculous. Glenn close gets all the blame for him being a prick. And when his misses cuddles him at the end. I’d have knocked ten shades of shit out him for all the trouble he caused

SmidgenofaPigeon · 28/03/2021 22:40

What is your AIBU?

ParkheadParadise · 28/03/2021 22:41

You forgot about the burning bunny (rip)

SmidgenofaPigeon · 28/03/2021 22:41

Oh doesn't the poor bunny go in a boiling pot?

ParkheadParadise · 28/03/2021 22:45

@SmidgenofaPigeon
Yes, the poor bunny does.

Original poster

DriedFig · 28/03/2021 22:47

@SmidgenofaPigeon

What is your AIBU?

My AIBU is - is this film a pile of misogynistic shit that should not be on BBC.

OP posts:

Ohnomoreno · 28/03/2021 22:49

It's always been a fucked up film, even 20 years ago. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean I think it should be banned.

Sparklingbrook · 28/03/2021 22:51

YABU. You didn't even mention the boiling bunny.

Lucent · 28/03/2021 22:54

@DriedFig

I haven't seen this film in years.

He has an affair with a mentally unstable woman and she proceeds to stalk him.
He breaks into her flat and looks through her things.
He forces entry and physically assaults her.
He murders her.

And his wife forgives him, and they live happily ever after.

And in case you think Hollywood film has really moved on, I just saw Passengers, where a man condemns an innocent woman to die alone on a spaceship with him because he thinks she’s pretty, and rather than this film being a horror film after that point, it thinks it’s entirely natural that a woman should prioritise over her own actual life the emotional needs of a man who has literally just done the worst possible thing to her.

It blew my mind this was a mainstream Hollywood mildly sci-fi romcom from 2016, not a horror.

WickedWitchOfTheEast87 · 28/03/2021 23:02

@LBnc2021 your post made me 🤣🤣 so much I just choked on my cup of tea and it wasn't pleasant had to clean my phone screen and even worse the tea also came out of my nose 😳🙈 but thanks for the laugh I needed that!

goldielockdown2 · 28/03/2021 23:04

I remember a lecturer at uni telling us this genre of films presenting women as unhinged and invariably coming to a sticky end, coincided with 'career women' coming into their own in the 80s. Women in business, power suits, being taken seriously, independent, nah slap them down.

Babygotblueyes · 28/03/2021 23:07

*And in case you think Hollywood film has really moved on, I just saw Passengers, where a man condemns an innocent woman to die alone on a spaceship with him because he thinks she’s pretty, and rather than this film being a horror film after that point, it thinks it’s entirely natural that a woman should prioritise over her own actual life the emotional needs of a man who has literally just done the worst possible thing to her.

It blew my mind this was a mainstream Hollywood mildly sci-fi romcom from 2016, not a horror*

@Lucent - too right. In the original story she found the bodies of several other women he had woken up but then killed because they didnt hit it off with him. At least that would have shown him for the asshole he is.

VeniVidiWeeWee · 28/03/2021 23:10

Play Misty for me?

Thewinterofdiscontent · 28/03/2021 23:11

Lucent I can’t remember how it ended but I thought it was a bit of horror story - she does her nut when she realises what’s he’s done to her. I think the point he was a dick is clearly made?

I quite like Fatal Attraction although I am desperate for Glenn Close to stop doing the pick me dance. The wife character annoys me too. I’d be down to the solicitors before you could say “anyone for stew”.

EsmaCannonball · 28/03/2021 23:12

Men are infinitely more likely to stalk and murder a woman who has ended a relationship but there doesn't seem to be a male equivalent of the term bunny-boiler. Funny that.

MsTSwift · 28/03/2021 23:15

Yanbu it’s terrible. Almost as bad as Pretty Woman “oh what fun it is to be a street prostitute” 🙄🙄

RockingMyFiftiesNot · 28/03/2021 23:23

@EsmaCannonball

Men are infinitely more likely to stalk and murder a woman who has ended a relationship but there doesn't seem to be a male equivalent of the term bunny-boiler. Funny that.

'Bunny Boiler' could be used for a man too though? It originally referred to a woman because it was a woman boiling the bunny in the film. I'd certainly use it about a man should it ever be relevant to do so.

This has also got me wondering if there are any other phrases which have originated from a movie the way 'bunny boiler' did from Fatal Attraction. I can't think of any.

allycat4 · 28/03/2021 23:30

I watched it and really enjoyed it (haven't seen it for about 15 years) - the acting is great, the locations are nice, but I agree: he is a complete dick. He's riddled with his own issues but Alex has to carry all the sin!

Krazynights34 · 28/03/2021 23:31

I re-watched last night..
I’m such a test I have to add:
Glenn Close’s character kidnapped his child -which caused his wife to go out looking for her child and have a car accident.
Old Douglas had been kicked out by the wife when he confessed.
And.. it was his wife who finished Glenn Close off. Though after GC had broken into their home with a knife etc etc.
I was surprised at how sympathetic GC’s character came across on this watching

Krazynights34 · 28/03/2021 23:31

Twat.. not test

EsmaCannonball · 28/03/2021 23:34

Bunny-boiler could be applied to a man, but it never is.

Lucent · 28/03/2021 23:53

@Thewinterofdiscontent

Lucent I can’t remember how it ended but I thought it was a bit of horror story - she does her nut when she realises what’s he’s done to her. I think the point he was a dick is clearly made?

I quite like Fatal Attraction although I am desperate for Glenn Close to stop doing the pick me dance. The wife character annoys me too. I’d be down to the solicitors before you could say “anyone for stew”.

She has an interlude of being angry, sure, but once it is discovered that she could use the ship’s medical pod as a makeshift hibernation pod and right the wrong Jim has done her — essentially claim back the life she’d had taken from her, rather than dying alone on a spaceship with a man who has actually taken her life— the film presents it as right and natural that she should sacrifice herself for her abuser. Her character has zero agency.

@Babygotblueyes, thanks, I just looked up the comic strip, which actually makes a lot more sense as a schlocky horror where both halves of the couple are monstrous.

Summerdayshaze · 28/03/2021 23:58

Michael Douglas is hot as fuck in this.

But I think credit needs to go to the girl who plays his little daughter. HOW CUTE?

Iamthewombat · 29/03/2021 00:03

I remember a lecturer at uni telling us this genre of films presenting women as unhinged and invariably coming to a sticky end, coincided with 'career women' coming into their own in the 80s. Women in business, power suits, being taken seriously, independent, nah slap them down.

Quite right. This was one of the principal themes of ‘Backlash’ by Susan Faludi!

sadeyedladyofthelowlandsea · 29/03/2021 00:09

Haven't seen the film in years, but I remember a story that Glenn Close was furious that they changed the ending. Originally, her character knew she was going to be killed, so she set up evidence to frame Michael Douglas for her murder. The film was supposed to end with his realisation that she'd got her revenge on him for how he'd treated her, and that he would pay for it. Apparently it didn't go down well, so they edited the entire film...