Unfaithful (2002)

Wow! What a talent! Wonderful and thought-provoking movie. Lane and Gere are truly amazing together!

An apparently happy and complete family with a child is about to face its biggest challenge yet when the mother stumbles upon a charming stranger to whom she is attracted. Slowly, their relationship begins to dangerously evolve, obviously pleasure-wise, while the husband becomes more and more suspicious. Their whole marriage will be put to the test multiple times but will it actually hold up, regardless of the infidelity?It's a movie which, as its title suggests, presents an unfaithful wife which falls for a complete stranger while her family is increasingly neglected. The plot is pretty straightforward, with a brief presentation of the family, then suddenly moves to the cheating part, presented with great detail and sensuality. It keeps it this way until about half of its length, when it changes the course of events with a very unexpected twist, which alters the course of events dramatically, bringing much amazement, but not in a good way. From there, everything becomes a true torture for the characters, but also for the viewer, which is forced to watch their destroyed lives struggle more and more until the moment when everything is revealed.I have to tell that while I liked the first half, although it has a pretty inexplicable intrigue, but the second one was completely wrong on so many levels. From the moment of the twist, which is as wow as it is mind boggling, everything falls to pieces, both in terms of story and viewer likeness. The characters tend to undertake a series of head-scratching decision, which ultimately leads to a very unsatisfying finale which doesn't bring anything good. It leaves everything sort of hanging, allowing the viewer to imagine the actual ending, fact which I dislike. The characters, while well described and developed, tend to do inexplicable actions which alter the course of events, the biggest one being the one from the intrigue. From the little that was presented in the beginning, the wife had absolutely no reason to betray her husband, who seemed determined to do anything for their family. Add to the equation the event from the twist and you end up with a spoiled plot which apparently doesn't lead anywhere and seems to have no consequences whatsoever. It became boring and predictable, facts which are unacceptable in this type of movie.Overall, I consider this film a missed opportunity. It presents an interesting idea with which its starts and which it develops, but it manages to spoil everything with a couple of stupid decisions which, to make it even worse, do not bring any consequences. It had good actors and sensual moments which made the first part quite enjoyable, but the second one was almost unbearable, making it a below-average movie which can be easily skipped.

If I remember correctly, "Unfaithful" was a hit, and it was mostly due to the word of mouth regarding the sex scenes; "steamy" this and "scandalous" that. And I'm not sure if it's the passage of 14 years or that I'm not Adrian Lyne's target audience, but those scenes did nothing for me. Make no mistake, I enjoy looking at Diane Lane as much as the next guy, but . . . I dunno, maybe it's that French guy that killed the mood.I was surprised to come away from this with as much antipathy towards Lane's character, though. Wives get bored and look for excitement, I get it. But it's not like her husband was unappealing. It's little things like regifting his snow globe and twisting the facts when she's enjoying another man; She's not very sympathetic here. So yeah, I sided with Richard Gere in this movie, and it was kinda rough seeing him played as a cuckold.It's not a very good movie to begin with, but it dumbs way down in the third act, once the Keystone cops enter the picture and the thriller aspect kicks in. I kinda like that it all boils down to a single irrational moment in each spouse's life that turns everything upside down. But you'll find a lot more in the love scenes than in the actual characters. But it would be unfair to slag the movie without mentioning Diane Lane's scene of post-coital remorse. So many emotions in so little time; she really did give a great performance.5/10

Connie (Diane Lane) and Ed Sumner (Richard Gere) are a suburban married couple with a kid Charlie (Erik Per Sullivan). Nothing terrible has happened but their marriage shows signs of wear. Then the winds of change starts to blow literally, and she collides with Paul Martel (Olivier Martinez) in the city. He helps her out with her skinned knee. She just can't keep him out of her mind and calls him up. She keeps returning to him and finally submits to his charms. However Ed starts putting it all together.Diane Lane makes cheating classy. This movie may not work with somebody else. Never has a woman thinking about sex look so great. The story is basically a romance novel. One thing director Adrian Lyne knows about is how to class up some sexual ugliness. The use of classical piano almost makes the audience root for the cheaters. I am less certain about the on-the-nose Olivier Martinez, but the appealing Diane Lane makes up for any deficiencies.