By John Robert
After a wild one-night stand, Derrick (Michael Ealy), a successful sports agent, watches his perfect life slowly disappear when he discovers that the sexy and mysterious woman he risked everything for is a determined police detective (Hilary Swank) who entangles him in her latest investigation. As he tries desperately to put the pieces together, he falls deeper into her trap, risking his family, his career, and even his life. FATALE is a suspenseful and provocative psychological thriller and an unpredictable game of cat and mouse where one mistake can change your life.
RELEASE DATE: Dec 12, 2020
STUDIO: Lionsgate
DIRECTOR: Deon Taylor
MPAA RATING: R for violence, sexual content and language
SCREENWRITERS: David Loughery
STARRING: Hilary Swank, Michael Ealy, Mike Colter, Danny Pino, and Tyrin Turner.
GENRE: Psychological thriller
A bachelor party in Las Vegas offers a much-needed distraction for Derrick, who’s accompanied there by his business partner Rafe (Mike Colter). As the party unfolds, Derrick draws the eye of an intriguing woman and, urged on by Rafe, he approaches her.
They have immediate sexual chemistry, as the mysterious beauty, Val, confides that Vegas offers a “therapeutic getaway” from her high stress job. They enjoy a wild night of passion – what Rafe calls a cure for seven years of marriage – and Derrick returns the next day to his work and home, with his night of sin providing a wake-up call and a new determination to repair his strained marriage.
But Derrick’s troubles are just beginning. Not long after seeming to be on the road to reconciliation, he and Tracie are awakened by an intruder. A vicious fight ensues between Derrick and the masked thief, with Derrick nearly being killed before the assailant escapes into the night.
Shortly thereafter, the police arrive, led by the crime’s chief investigator, Detective Quinlan … Val Quinlan. Derrick is frozen with incredulity at the turn of events, as Val, for her own as yet unexplained reasons, begins to slowly turn the screws on him. The stakes become even more heightened as Derrick experiences a stunning betrayal and loss, and Val plots the final moves in her deadly game.
FATALE offered Hilary Swank a new kind of role, one she quickly embraced. “The character of Val fascinated me as it tapped into playing with what drives us as human beings and the lengths to which we’ll go for family,” she explains, hinting at the character’s motives. “It was a world I was excited to explore.”
Swank said. “In early screenings of the film, I loved watching the audience freak out when things got turned around for both Val and Derrick.”
Michael Ealy says he was drawn to the project by the question it poses: “What happens to a person after he begins to lose everything he cares about?” he asks. “Derrick seems to have it all, but what he has materially versus what he possesses emotionally is a fascinating dynamic. After he makes a single mistake, Derrick starts to lose everything, and you begin to see what he’s made of.”
One of the most exciting filmmakers in the industry, whose credits include the recent hit thrillers The Intruder and Black and Blue , Deon Taylor points back to the high-powered thrillers from the 1980s and ‘90s as an inspiration. “I’d go to the theater, grab the popcorn, and escape for two hours,” he remembers. “Those films, like Fatal Attraction and Body Heat, are so cool and clever that you can’t help but think about them long after leaving the theater.”
That love and appreciation of the genre led Taylor to come up with his contemporary spin on it. “I wanted to create a film for today’s audiences that evoked that same feeling I had when I was younger – to make something intense, scary, and sexual, and have the audience yell at the screen, ‘Don’t do that!’” he laughs. “I really love making movies that will have audiences interacting with what’s happening onscreen. I like to convey some messages, but at the same time provide a release and fun. I wanted FATALE to embody all those things that you love going to the movies for.”
Like Swank, actor Mike Colter found the theme of duality – that everyone has two sides to themselves – to be a compelling one. “I like to play roles that make audiences feel something,” he elaborates. “I want them to have a strong reaction to Rafe, who is Derrick’s best friend and partner, but also a bit selfish and manipulative.”
