(WARNING: Spoilers lie ahead for Deep Water, in the event you have not seen it yet.)
In Deep Water, the latest erotic thriller from the genre’s mastermind Adrian Lyne, Ben Affleck plays a sinister husband, earnest daddy, and snail obsessive with a dark secret. While it is not by any stretch of the imagination Affleck’s best performance – it feels kind of like he is sleepwalking through every scene – it is indicative of Affleck’s strength. Even with little effort, Affleck assimilates well into darker characters and as such, the next phase of his career (the Bennifer 2.0 phase, perhaps) should be starring in erotic thrillers, a la Michel Douglas in the late 80s and 90s.
In the late 90s and early 2000s, Ben Affleck was a dreamboat. The inside of my bedroom door was covered in cutouts of Affleck from Entertainment Weekly and People (alongside his Pearl Harbor co-star Josh Hartnett, obviously). Affleck became a movie star after winning an Oscar for writing Good Will Hunting alongside Matt Damon. But into the early aughts, Affleck’s personal and professional life crashed and burned. Affleck went from reliable romantic lead to guaranteed Razzie nominee. In the late 2000s and early 2010s Affleck would get back into awards conversations from behind the camera with his 2009 directorial debut Gone Baby Gone (2007) followed by The Town (2010), and Argo (2012).
Affleck’s performance as Nick Dunne in 2014’s Gone Girl – a modern erotic thriller – marked a bit of a renaissance for him. Yes, Argo won Best Picture (Gone Baby Gone and The Town received nominations), but as a performer, he was still stagnant. In Gone Girl, Affleck’s character Nick Dunne becomes the center of media attention and the primary suspect in the disappearance and apparent murder of his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike). The intentionally cast role required a bit of the real Ben Affleck. He drew on his experience as a public figure, exemplifying his apathy but simultaneous interest in celebrity. Affleck’s portrayal of Nick Dunne’s mystifying, unaffected quality feels personal to Affleck. Although we know Nick Dunne did not kill Amy, it feels like he could have. Throughout the ominous performance is a magnetic sexual appeal: Nick is kind of basic and kind of an asshole but for some reason, he’s irresistible, which Affleck embodies with ease.
In Deep Water, Affleck plays Vic Van Allen, a similar – though more frightening – bummed husband and snail enthusiast (this guy seriously loves snails) with lots of stubble who does a lot of heavy breathing and watching through windows. At the beginning of the film, Vic and his wife, Melinda attend a party. Melinda openly hooks up with a young man in front of Vic and all of their friends. It’s clear that the couple has an understanding. Or, at least, they have an understanding that Vic pretends to tolerate. At the party, Vic tells the young man that he killed Melinda’s last suitor. The rumor spreads around town, with most people assuming it was a bad joke. Affleck successfully plays the role both ways, as he did with Gone Girl. For a time, it makes perfect sense that Vic was joking, even after seeing a scene in which Vic kills one of Melinda’s suitors. Affleck, as disaffected as he and his character are in Deep Water, is still magnetic and just as irresistible as the guy I scotch-taped to my bedroom door in 2002.
Even when it’s not his best (such as in Deep Water), Affleck is most effective when balancing his dark, alluring, and charming sides at the same — which makes the erotic thriller genre a perfect outlet for his next career stage, quite like Michael Douglas’ inspiring erotic thriller run in the 80s and 90s.
The leading men in erotic thrillers such as Gone Girl’s Nick Dunne and Deep Water’s Vic Van Allen and the protagonists Douglas played in erotic thrillers like Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct are simple with an attraction to danger. They’re attractive and charming, but ultimately unremarkable, which allows the Femme Fatales like Rosamund Pike’s Amy Dunne, Ana de Armas’s Melinda Van Allen, Glenn Close’s Alex Forrest, and Sharon Stone’s Catherine Tramell to chew the scenery. Affleck assimilates into this character type naturally. He fluctuates between sympathetic and menacing in seconds with something as simple as a glimmer in his eye. He can be both transparent and opaque; simple but with innate, sexy darkness stirring underneath.
