Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

Fatale Blu-ray Movie Review

Attractione.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 21, 2021

Kind of hilariously, at least for those who enjoy word games, etymologies and other geek-tastic pursuits, writer-director Deon Taylor mentions in a supplement on this disc how he wanted to make a "noir for a black audience". That seemingly kinda sorta inherent irony aside, the whole "black" aspect may be the one area where Fatale offers something at least a little unusual. In virtually every other way, though, this is an almost sad knock off that largely wastes the talents of a dedicated cast in its depiction of a supposed one night stand that goes horribly, horribly awry. Noted cinematographer Dante Spinotti, who is established enough he evidently had a "hard out" in his contract if the project wasn't up to his standards (according to another talking head, producer Roxanne Avent Taylor, in a supplement), also invests the film with some considerable style, substituting deep blues and evocative purples for the, well, blacks that many associate with Golden Era noir outings, but in most ways this is a paint by numbers story in terms of plotting and characterization that rarely if ever provides the angst that the best noir films can.

Derrick Tyler (Michael Ealy) is a former college athlete who has built a successful agency in Los Angeles representing black sports stars, in a plot point that would make him very much home in the world of Ballers. If business is good, all is not well on the home front, as Derrick is more than a little suspicious that his gorgeous wife Tracie (Damaris Lewis) is carrying on an extramarital affair with someone. Other family members also present some issues, but Derrick takes off to Las Vegas for a little (supposedly work related) R&R with his partner Rafe Grimes (Mike Colter). Rafe wants to sell the company, but Derrick is opposed, and is consumed by what’s going on with Tracie, which leads to Rafe encouraging Derrick to have a little fling of his own. That leads to an assignation with a mystery woman named Valerie (Hilary Swank), which initially seems like fun and games until the next morning, when things start to go at least a little haywire.

Derrick manages to extricate himself from the situation, if only barely, and returns to Los Angeles where he attempts to reconcile with Tracie. A sudden break in at their luxe mansion leads to a pretty dramatic smackdown for Derrick, and when he calls the police, who should show up as lead investigator but Valerie, who turns out to be Detective Valerie Quinlan. If you can make it past this almost hilariously overly contrived plot point, the rest of the film may be at least passably interesting, but my hunch is it's at this juncture that many eyes will be rolling as credulity just exits the picture, both figuratively and literally.

Things actually devolve even further from this point forward, as Valerie turns out to (of course) be the obsessive stalker type a la Glenn Close's character in the obviously similar Fatal Attraction, though in this case more than a pet rabbit ends up dead. In that respect, the film starts to play almost like a parody of Strangers on a Train, albeit without any of the humor of real send ups like Throw Momma from the Train. It turns out that Valerie has an ulterior motive for all her subterfuge, which is seemingly inserted to weirdly "humanize" a character who is obviously otherwise a complete sociopath.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf was evidently even less enamored with Fatale than I was. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

Fatale Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Fatale is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. One of the undeniable strengths of this production is the cinematography by Dante Spinotti, and it is rendered here with often impressive results. While one of the supplements shows a crew member wearing an Arri Alexa branded t-shirt, the IMDb, while weirdly leaving out the actual camera, lists Redcode RAW at a source resolution of 8K, which (and this is a joke, obviously) suggests Red cameras were utilized. With that high of a source resolution, I wouldn't be surprised to find out this was finished at a 4K DI, though the IMDb doesn't list that particular data point, and I haven't been able to dredge up any authoritative information online in a cursory search. All of this said, the film utilizes some really evocative lighting and grading choices. While typical thriller blues and purples can predominate, as mentioned above, there are some other fairly unusual moments, including an almost pea green sequence with Derrick encountering another character in a kind of underground tunnel. Some of the almost peach colored beachside material also looks really lustrous. Detail levels are generally quite impressive, though which such a glut of dark, shadowy material, it's probably not surprising that fine detail levels can ebb and flow depending on lighting conditions.

Fatale Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

You wouldn't expect a freight elevator to provide floor rumbling LFE, but that's just one of the kind of pleasant surprises to hear in Fatale's often nicely rendered DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. There is in fact a big climax aboard just such a freight elevator, which slowly descends in the wake of considerable mayhem, and which, blended with huge washes of almost ambient sound underscoring, provides unexpected oomph from a sound design perspective. The film utilizes the side and rear channels in expected moments like the big nightclub scene where Derrick first meets Valerie, but even in some more intimate dialogue scenes there can be at least intermittent engagement of the side channels in particular to establish spatial relationships and provide background noises. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free track. This is the relatively rare Lionsgate release on Blu-ray of recent vintage that features additional audio tracks in French and Spanish (both lossy Dolby Digital 5.1), and also offers optional French, Spanish and English SDH subtitles.

Fatale Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director / Producer Deon Taylor and Producer Roxanne Avent Taylor


• Making Fatale (1080p; 9: 52) has some relatively interesting interviews with the Taylors.


• Deon Taylor: The Right Direction (1080p; 6:02) features snippets from the film and interviews touting the skill of Taylor.


• Cinematography: Finding the Killer Look (1080p; 6:59) focuses (sorry) on director of photography Dante Spinotti.


• Alternate Ending (1080p; 1:42) is literally the exact opposite of the way the film concludes in its final form, and strains credulity just about as much.

Fatale Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

On the plus side, Fatale is well made, with high production values and at least one marquee star. On the minus side is some rote plotting and completely preposterous situations which so remove the story from any feeling of reality that it ends up not really mattering who's threatening whom for what reasons. Fans of the cast may want to check this out, and the good news for anyone considering a purchase is that technical merits are strong and there are a few decent supplements.