Fatale

Michael Ealy and Hilary Swank star in Fatale, a love affair-turned-psychological thriller and one of the few films to make it to theatres this month (at least in the US). David Loughery’s screenplay focuses on how a police detective (Swank) methodically unfurls the like of Derrick (Ealy), a well-to-do sports agent.

The music arguably tells the story best here: The recognizable 1998 hit “All My Life” by K-Ci and JoJo is a paean to a trustworthy relationship—and when the tune is cut up, rearranged, and applied with various sonic distortions, this disorientation effectively mirrors Ealy’s slow-motion, horrific dawning upon him that he has fallen into an unrecoverable trap in Swank.

The trailer begins with a monologue by Ealy, following by the first sample of the song at 0:17. Right away, one can tell that some serious effort and editing was put into this; one cannot simply drop the song in and call it a day. A vocal sample (“baby, baby…”) slows down gently as if on a spinning record before shattering glass abruptly awakens Ealy. At this point the soundscape quickly pivots to unnerving, blaring synth and epic percussion—an entirely different mood from just moments earlier.

A jump scare at 0:34 further solidifies the shift. Notice the synched blackout with silence at 0:37 as an element to further throw off the audioviewer as the tussle unfolds. At 0:42, the synth fades into the diegetic sound of police sirens, matching the fade-in shot for the next scene.

Next, the music obviously comes in and out to signify a series of flashbacks as Ealy and Swank meet in the interrogation room. Finally, at 1:04, we get the first fairly clear and identifiable use of “All My Life”, with a solo vocal line—but only for a moment, as this is cut off by suspenseful music and the title card for the release date. The next line from “All My Life” enters from 1:10-1:14, and at this point it’s clear it is being blended in bits and pieces, just as we see more of a montage series come into effect in this second half of the trailer.

At Swank interrogates, we hear pizzicati strings not unlike something from Psycho or something similar, creeping up in microtones. Then, we hear the music winding down in imitation of a tape cassette turning off, not unlike what we heard at the beginning of the trailer. “And then I finally found you”, lyrics from the song, come next, juxtaposed against a smiling Swank in the interrogation room—and the vocal itself is doubled an octave lower, in an unnerving way.

The song is never presented in a straightforward way—instead, it’s strewn across the trailer in an assemblage of fragments, like the corrupted memory that it is as Swank pursues her suspect. The song is used in a way that one can tell it’s meant to be a love tune that represents the relationship that never really was, and if the audience does happen to identity the song, that only adds to its meaning.

Fatale is due for release December 18th.

— Curtis Perry