Fatal Affair Review: Even the Steamy Scenes Couldn’t Save the Day!

Exemplifying the exact definition of a TV movie, Fatal Affair with Nia Long and Omar Epps in the lead roles is a psychological thriller that explores an overall premise that you’ve seen a million times before. Be it the Michael Douglas and Glenn Close 1987 film, Fatal Attraction or The Boy Next Door starring Jennifer Lopez from the previous decade, the narrative structure of this film never even tries to be anything different or captivating and fits the Netflix and Chill bracket perfectly.

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Set in San Francisco, the storyline of Fatal Affair kicks off with our female lead, Ellie (Nia Long), and her husband, Marcus (Stephen Bishop), moving into an exquisite oceanside house to spice up their dull and lackluster relationship. On the other side, at work, Ellie comes across her college friend, David, and they hit-off quite well when they catch up for drinks after work. Subsequently, things change for the worse, as her life turns upside down with quite a few dire consequences. And the remainder of the film showcases Ellie trying to overcome these obstacles which keep lining up over and over again.

Failing in every principal aspect required to tell a good story and execute a decent film, Fatal Affair is totally a formulaic movie from the beginning to the end. Substantially, the storyline is the primary culprit as the writers did not even try to make the film remotely intriguing. Although the trailer effortlessly gave away the entire plot, the first act of the movie did close to nothing to set up some uncertainty through and through or at least a decent enough twist to cap things off on a moderate note.

Furthermore, combined with lazy writing, the logic and common sense also seem to take a back seat throughout the entire runtime as several scenes do not fit the character’s description or were written to conveniently fit the story for that instance.

Alongside the extremely bad dialogue, the wooden characters do not make things any better. The one-dimensional, utterly dumb, and insipid characteristics of these individuals do not make you root for them in any aspect when it comes to their feelings, struggle, or drama. However, on the positive side, the Fatal Affair at least moves on a relatively fast pace, and the 90-minute runtime helped navigate the blatantly obvious phases of the storyline rapidly.

The performances from the cast do not elevate the movie all that much. Nia Long tried her best to offer everything she could to her naive role as nothing worked in her favor from the cheesy one-liners to the chemistry with her on-screen husband, Stephen Bishop. Omar Epps in his psychotic role did not appear anywhere near intimidating with his frail mannerisms and body language.

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Overall, you begin to wonder why Netflix keeps producing these entirely predictable, uninspiring, and run-of-the-mill “thrillers,” which fail to leave a long-lasting impact. But, in Netflix’s defense, if substandard movies like 365 Dni and Addicted sell and trend for weeks on the Top 10 lists, why not make more of them that makes people turn off their brains for a while, and enjoy the absolute ridiculousness on-screen. Fatal Affair is a dreary movie to watch altogether, and even the all-important steamy scenes could not save the day. Watch ‘Fatal Affair’ on Netflix here.

Rating – 1/5 | Grade – D

Images via Netflix