‘Deep Water‘ is a psychological thriller about a married couple’s collapsing relationship and the unusual measures they both use to cope. In order to keep his family together, Vic (Ben Affleck), a moody and affluent tech innovator, tolerates his wife Melinda’s (Ana de Armas) repeated relationships.
When one of Melinda’s “friends” is found dead, Vic’s passivity appears to take a deadly turn, splitting the couple’s acquaintances on whether Vic killed his wife’s lover.
Their 6-year-old daughter Trixie’s innocent conjecture about her father being a murderer adds a whole new level of dark strain to the relationship.
Adrian Lyne’s sensual thriller is well-balanced and subdued, with a satisfying conclusion that may have left you with a few unanswered issues. Allow us to break down the film for you now that we’ve gone in-depth with it.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.
‘Deep Water’ (2022) Movie Plot Synopsis
Vic returns home from a bike ride to find Melinda staring at him intently before getting up and retreating into their home. The obvious tension between them sets the tone for the rest of the movie, which subsequently goes into detail about their lives.
Vic’s vibrant six-year-old daughter, Trixie, is the apple of his eye, while the mother appears distant from her kid. Vic’s development of a microchip used in military drones has provided the couple with a comfortable lifestyle.
Melinda, on the other hand, usually invites another (usually younger) “friend” to the gatherings she attends, with whom she vanishes for long periods of time, making it clear what she’s up to.
Vic, irritated and forced into speaking, informs Melinda’s current buddy Joel that he (Vic) murdered her old acquaintance Martin McRae at one of these parties. Joel is terrified and flees town, but not before spreading Vic’s storey.
Their friends’ circle quickly becomes buzzing, despite the fact that the majority of them are confident in the husband’s innocence. When another of Melinda’s acquaintances, pianist Charlie De Lisle, inexplicably dies at a party, suspicion falls even more heavily on her husband.
Vic is behind the murder, Melinda claims, and Don, a mutual friend, appears to agree. The probe, however, comes to a halt due to a lack of evidence.
Melinda then starts dating Tony, a former boyfriend, and asks him home for dinner. Vic sits patiently once more as his wife flirts with their visitor before disappearing into a room with Tony. Vic brings Tony up a few days later on the pretence of showing him a property Melinda is interested in.
The two travel into the woods, where the husband murders his wife’s ex-boyfriend and current lover, then weighs and pushes the body into the river. Vic witnesses Tony’s corpse floating back up and tries to hide it again at a picnic soon after, only to be discovered by Don.
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Why Does Vic Kill Melinda’s Lovers at the End of ‘Deep Water’ Movie?
The film’s conclusion begins quickly, with Don attempting to flee and tell what he has witnessed while Vic pursues him on his mountain bike.
Because the forest dirt roads are slick, Don eventually slips and crashes off a cliff, resulting in a horrific disaster. Vic then rides his bicycle home, arriving to see Melinda staring at him from the stairwell.
The film’s concluding scene is then revealed to be identical to the opening sequence, save for one key difference. When Vic returns, Melinda informs him that she’s “found Tony,” referring to the dead man’s wallet she discovered in Vic’s greenhouse.
‘Deep Water‘ ends with a short glimpse of Tony’s wife burning his ID, implying that she’s become a co-conspirator in the murder.
As a result, it appears that Melinda has made peace with her husband’s sins and will likely return to him. Despite their marital strife, the couple’s final equilibrium is a strikingly grim one, making us to ask why Vic would go on a murdering spree rather than simply walk away from the relationship.
A love story is never the whole story. @BenAffleck and Ana de Armas star in #DeepWater streaming March 18. pic.twitter.com/TC9lyC3BBD
— Hulu (@hulu) February 14, 2022
The husband, however, is too close to his wife and daughter to tear the family apart, as the film depicts. He also believes that he should not strive to change Melinda because he fell in love with her for who she is.
The only remaining choice appears to be to either scare away her boyfriends (like he does with Joel) or, if that fails, to kill them. As a side note, Vic’s affinity for snails appears to represent his inexplicable attraction to something (in this case, his committed relationship with Melinda) that most others would find repulsive.
Vic’s first assassination that of Charlie, the pianist, is a mix of frustration and opportunity (finding the would-be victim alone and inebriated in a swimming pool). However, a number of additional elements contribute to the crime.
Vic is still stinging from Joel’s abrasive demeanour. Melinda’s guys are unrepentant and brazen, just like her (though they seem to successively tone down from Joel to the pianist Charlie to the sustainable housing visionary Tony).
Vic even complements Tony, telling Melinda that she’s finally chosen an intelligent person. Of course, Vic’s usage of the word “brains” takes on a morbid connotation given that he just bludgeoned Tony’s head.
Melinda’s infrequent sexual overtures on him, which swiftly turn frigid, aggravate the husband’s annoyance. The murders appear to serve as a type of release for Vic, as evidenced by his joyous manner after killing Tony. Melinda seemed to like the knowledge that Vic is killing for her in certain ways.
She eventually claims (quite triumphantly) that she is the thing Vic killed for, after repeatedly blaming him for his lack of passion and lack of expression. Vic, she reasoned, is her most passionate lover, after all, because he goes to such efforts to obtain her for himself. As a result, killing the wife’s lovers appears to be an appropriate solution for the core pair in the film.
Does Vic Get Caught At The End of The ‘Deep Water’ Movie?
Even though the film ends on an uncertain note, Vic’s obvious murders, despite appearing risky, do not lead to his capture. Melinda appears to have opted to become an accomplice to her husband’s crimes after burning Tony’s identification.
There’s still a chance Don survives his horrific automobile accident and later confesses to Vic that he saw Tony’s body. However, the chances of anyone surviving a disaster of that size are extremely remote.
The major risk of Vic being apprehended is the discovery of Tony’s body, which may be disastrous for the husband. Given that one of Melinda’s lovers (Charlie) has already been discovered dead, another one of her “friends” dying would cast an unavoidable cloud over the husband.
Furthermore, and possibly naively, Vic ties pebbles to Tony’s corpse with his belt and his pet’s leash, making it even more straightforward to link the crime to him if the body is discovered. As a result, Vic hasn’t been apprehended yet, but the chance remains.
Why Does Melinda Burns Tony’s ID at the End of ‘Deep Water’ Movie?
In the film’s final scene, Melinda burns Tony’s ID, signalling a significant change in her character. From vehemently opposing any type of violence associated with Vic, whether it’s the drones, his microchip powers, or the possibility of him killing Charlie, the wife has now become a collaborator in Tony’s murder.
Despite the fact that Melinda packs her belongings and decides to leave Vic, their daughter Trixie refuses to leave. Melinda appears to have a change of heart as a result of this, and she understands that she, too, does not want to split their family apart.
As a result, her next natural action is to keep her husband’s crime from being discovered in order to keep him from serving a life sentence in jail, which leads her to burn Tony’s ID, which is an extremely incriminating piece of evidence.
Burning Tony’s ID also has a deeper connotation, as it appears to indicate that Melinda is abandoning her previous practises of having several boyfriends and hurting her loyal husband.
However, the couple’s new dynamic is unknown, and it’s possible that Melinda will use her knowledge of Vic’s crimes against him at some time. However, given that she is aware that he is capable of murder, she is unlikely to push him too far.
