Deep Water

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Adrian Lyne directs. Eigil Bryld behind the camera. Marco Beltrami scores. Andrew Mondshein cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Released 4 years ago.
• 2Directed by Adrian Lyne, shot by Eigil Bryld. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 3Original score by Marco Beltrami. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 4Editor Andrew Mondshein shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 5Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas and Tracy Letts carry the top of the cast.
• 6Marketing tagline: "The love story is never the whole story.".
• 7IMDB entry: tt2180339 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 8Classified under 13 themes, including "infidelity", "jealousy", "based on novel or book", "marriage".

The technical file

Cinematography

Eigil Bryld

Original score

Marco Beltrami

Editing

Andrew Mondshein

Production design

Jeannine Oppewall

Costume design

Heidi Bivens

Makeup / hair

Tina Roesler Kerwin

VFX supervisor

Allen Maris

Sound

Michael Barry

Stunt coordinator

Chelsea Bruland

Runtime

116 min · 1h 56m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$49,000,000

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

Deep Water (2022) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

35% 🥫 Rotten

Metacritic

53/100

IMDB rating

5.5/10 · 73,781 votes

MPAA

R

Also by

Adrian Lyne

• 
  Mr. Smith

  1976 · ★ 8.0
• 
  Jacob's Ladder

  1990 · ★ 7.4
• 
  Lolita

  1997 · ★ 7.1
• 
  Fatal Attraction

  1987 · ★ 6.8
• 
  Unfaithful

  2002 · ★ 6.7
• 
  Flashdance

  1983 · ★ 6.5

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

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Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Ricky's Last Swim

  Clip · Official
• 

  ▶
  The Last Supper

  Clip · Official
• 

  ▶
  First Look

  Featurette · Official
• 

  ▶
  Official Trailer

  Trailer · Official
• 

  ▶
  Teaser Trailer

  Teaser · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Manuel São Bento2022-03-26
  ★ 3/10

  FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://www.msbreviews.com/movie-reviews/deep-water-spoiler-free-review "Deep Water sells itself as an erotic thriller, but it lacks precisely those same components. Adrian Lyne tries to make a comeback after a twenty-year absence from cinema, but Zach Helm and Sam Levinson's screenplay holds too many problems. The protagonists couldn't be more awful people in an incredibly toxic relationship that's frustrating to watch, but their lack of development and inexistent arcs make the narrative feel repetitive, predictable, and lacking intensity. The messy approach to the secondary characters and subplots contributes to an absolutely disastrous script, where not even a traditional third act can be found. In the end, Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas are actually good, so there's something to appreciate." Rating: D

  Read full review ↓
• CinemaSerf2022-04-04
  ★ 5/10

  Ben Affleck ("Vic) is a successful man married to the gorgeous "Melinda" (Ana de Armas). Unfortunately for him, though, she wants - well, has - more of an open marriage than he might like. Indeed, she frequently all but flaunts her usually handsome and younger lovers in front of him and their friends. When one of her coterie goes missing,"Vic" tells his successor "Jonas" (Dash Mihok) that he killed him with an hammer. True or false? Soon rumours abounds, made worse when one of her other beaux "Charlie" (Jacob Elordi) is found floating in the pool! Is he the culprit? Well, to be honest I didn't care. Affleck is nowhere near his best with this preposterous nonsense. Ana de Arias has done some stinkers lately, and this is just the latest. Just taking her clothes off and swearing provocativly isn't acting. The ending is hilariously bad and all told this is just a poor effort from a declining Adrian Lyne that is as forgettable as it is terrible. An established cast is no substitute for a good story with good writing. Waste of everyone's time, this.

  Read full review ↓
• tmdb280390232022-08-28
  ★ 7/10

  Jealousy is such a living hell that Claude Chabrol made arguably the definitive film on the subject and literally called it L’Enfer. This is an area of human relations with which Deep Water director Adrian Lyne is very comfortable, having previously directed Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal, Lolita (which I find superior to Kubrick’s version), and Unfaithful (loosely based on Chabrol's La Femme Infidèle. Coincidence?). To call this a retread is somewhat of an understatement, but Lyne is wise to have chosen familiar territory for his return from a 20-year break from directing. Deep Water is likewise a good career move for Ben Affleck; it gets him back on track after he followed the great The Way Back with The Last Duel and The Tender Bar (although Deep Water would have preceded all those films had it not been for covid-related delays; funny how things work). Here is a movie that allows him to give a subtly nuanced performance, and he doesn’t disappoint, taking passive-aggressiveness and elevating it into an art form. Affleck now joins his BFF Matt Damon as actors who have shined in roles based on characters created by Patricia Highsmith (and indeed this is how one might imagine Tom Ripley’s married life to be). Ana de Armas is also quite good as Melinda, Vic’s (Affleck) wife, a thoroughly despicable bitch on wheels whose only redeeming quality is Vic’s unconditional love for her. Oh, he loves her with almost all his heart. I say ‘almost’ because his heart may or may not be able to pump enough blood to a certain other organ – thus it is tacitly agreed that Melinda has the freedom to find solace elsewhere, usually in the arms of intellectually challenged younger men. This arrangement is no secret among the couple’s friends because Melinda is also an alcoholic with zero self-awareness. Vic dismisses the whole thing in public with a blend of dry wit, deadpan sarcasm, and self-deprecating humor (which provides some of the best dialogue in the film) that can turn ambiguously menacing at the drop of hat, especially when he finds himself alone with one of Melinda’s boytoys. In addition to Chabrol, Lyne puts me in mind of iconoclastic British filmmaker Peter Greenaway – and not just because Vic’s pet snails remind me of A Zed & Two Noughts. I generally find movies where characters literally get away with murder in one way or another to be immoral; the few exceptions to this rule include films like Greenaway's in which there is no conventional morality to speak of in the first place. In Deep Water, no major, plot-relevant character is innocent, and they all get what they deserve – even when, like Vic, they get what they want.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  New Regency Pictures

  US

• 

  Entertainment 360

  US

• FI

  Film Rites

  US

• 

  Keep Your Head Productions

  US

Key crew

• EditorAndrew Mondshein
• EditorTim Squyres
• Set Decoration BuyerJill Broadfoot
• Set DresserIggie Colomer
• Set DesignerDave Kelsey
• Set DresserBrian Mccolgan
• Set DresserJustin Meriwether
• Set DresserBrian Schuyler
• Sound Re-Recording MixerMichael Barry
• Supervising Sound EditorPhilip Stockton
• Visual Effects ProducerSebastien Racine
• Visual Effects SupervisorAllen Maris
• Visual Effects SupervisorDamien Hurgon
• Visual Effects SupervisorDavid Isyomin
• Set CostumerIsaac Fenter
• Costume SupervisorSteffany Bernstein-Pratt
• Production DesignJeannine Oppewall
• Executive ProducerNatalie Lehmann
• Executive ProducerGarrett Basch
• Executive ProducerPhilipp Keel
• Executive ProducerZev Foreman
• Music SupervisorTrygge Toven
• Music SupervisorToko Nagata
• CastingEllen Chenoweth

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• infidelity
• jealousy
• based on novel or book
• marriage
• dysfunctional marriage
• murder
• cuckold
• jealous husband
• erotic thriller
• unfaithful wife
• cuckolded husband
• psychological
• snails

Release history · US

When it landed

• Digital2022-03-18R· Hulu

Also known as

International titles

• GelmėLT
• Hlboká vodaSK
• Глубокие водыRU
• 底知れぬ愛の闇：2022JP
• 딥워터KR