Pulpy and removed from reality as Deep Water wants to be, buying into its core premise and having much fun with its ludicrous plot proves too big of an ask.

Are viewers truly supposed to believe that saucy young Melinda (Ana de Armas) serially cheats on her husband Vic (Ben Affleck) in public — after which the attractive young men mysteriously disappear — with minimal disapproval from their friends, and the only one who suspects foul play, even when Vic “playfully” admits his guilt, is fiction writer Don (Tracy Letts)?

It’s an inane set-up, even for an Adrian Lyne film, though considering the steam-less sex scenes and overall flat direction, any number of anonymous filmmakers could have received credit and nary an eyebrow would have been raised.

Allegedly based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, screenwriters Sam Levinson (Malcolm & Marie) and Zach Helm (Stranger Than Fiction) feed the talented cast horrendous dialogue, perhaps none worse than a car-set sequence that finds Letts talking to himself like a slightly more collected Lennie from Of Mice and Men.

Not “so bad it’s good” yet nowhere close to being legitimately good, Deep Water exists in a murky middle ground that makes one wonder what the hell anyone involved saw in the screenplay. No wonder Disney banished it to Hulu instead of embarrassing themselves by releasing it in theaters.

Grade: D-plus. Rated R. Available to stream via Hulu

(Photo: 20th Century Studios)