When master provocateur Adrian Lyne — the director who gave the world ՛9½ Weeks՛, ՛Fatal Attraction՛, and ՛Indecent Proposal՛ — announced his return to filmmaking after a 20-year hiatus, the industry held its breath. His new project, ՛Deep Water՛, promised to be more than just another release — it aimed to become the very quintessence of the erotic thriller genre.
But what lies behind the polished veneer of a story about vice and jealousy? As it turns out, the line between Hollywood fiction and reality in Lyne’s work is far thinner than it seems.
The Dangerous Pact of the Van Allens
At the center of the story are Vic and Melinda (Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas). They are a wealthy, outwardly successful, yet deeply unhappy couple. Their marriage rests on a strange and dangerous arrangement: Melinda is allowed to take lovers — as long as she doesn’t destroy the family for the sake of their shared daughter.
Vic appears to have accepted this, but beneath his calm exterior lies something darker. He takes a perverse pleasure in intimidating his wife’s lovers, joking (or not?) that he murdered one of their predecessors. When one of Melinda’s lovers actually dies, the line between bluff and brutal truth begins to blur. The only beings Vic truly trusts in this world are his pet snails.
Chemistry On and Off Screen
The film’s unique magnetism is heightened by the real-life spark between its leads. In 2020, tabloids were flooded with reports of a romance between Affleck and de Armas. Their relationship began during filming in 2019 and lasted for over a year. “When actors fall in love, you just pray they don’t fall out of love before the shoot ends,” Adrian Lyne quipped.
For audiences, this real-life connection became an added reason to scrutinize every glance and gesture on screen, trying to determine where the script ends and real life begins.
Between Fact and Fiction
Many of Lyne’s hits have roots in reality. For instance, the iconic 9½ Weeks is based on the memoir by Elizabeth McNeill. So, it’s natural to ask: what about Deep Water?
Here, fans may be disappointed — or relieved. The story of Vic and Melinda is pure fiction. The film is an adaptation of a 1957 novel by Patricia Highsmith. Highsmith authored several books that inspired films, including Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley, but Deep Water springs entirely from her imagination.
Read more: Spicy Facts About the Making of ‘Nymphomaniac’
And yet, there is one detail that connects the author to her character: a fascination with snails. Vic Van Allen’s obsession with these creatures is no random quirk. Patricia Highsmith herself adored snails and even kept them as pets. They frequently appear in her work — for example, in the story “The Snail-Watcher.”
So, while the couple’s bloody drama is fictional, Vic’s small, slimy companions are a direct nod from the “queen of the thriller” herself.
Deep Water is a cocktail of melancholy, tension, and peculiar fetishes that proves: even decades later, Adrian Lyne still knows how to make audiences feel uneasy — without letting them look away from the screen.
