Customer Reviews

Unfaithful (Widescreen)

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(45)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

In short - the beginning was strong. The characters were more or less believable. The affair was convincing. Diane Lane did give a strong performance. The chemistry between Diane Lane and Olivier Martinez was as erotic as it was unsettling. Never did it seem that the affair was glamourized; always shot as secretive and sleazy. The core message was obvious, infidelity is a bad thing. This was successfully portrayed in the first half of the film and showed potential for being a strong film. Why the film decided to take a strange left turn and stumble through stupidity and banality is beyond me. Everything worked well up until Gere met with Olivier. Heck, even their meeting was OK. But they had to take it one step further. And in that one second, it all fell apart. Not to mention all the ridiculous plot holes the size of watermelons. What could have been an interesting film about the pitfalls of infidelity turned into a morality lesson. That lesson being, if your spouse has an affair, just kill their lover, then forgive each other and live happily ever after.

Diane Lane's character represents the target audience for this film: a housewife with a good marriage who nevertheless perhaps feels that there's a little something missing in her marriage. Maybe she feels her husband takes her for granted, or she feels confined in her house and her role in life, etc. She fantasizes about what it would be like to be swept off her feet by a buff, younger man -- maybe even one with a foreign accent.

Of course the movie is unrealistic from beginning to end. First, few wife/mothers entering the early stages of middle age have Lane's body. Second, the odds of running into a French playboy are slim at best. Third, it's probably not going to end in murder, but will almost certainly end in disgrace, divorce, the loss of both family AND boyfriend.

So go ahead and fantasize, ladies, but if the movie convinces you not to act on the fantasy, it will have served some small purpose. And give me an honest answer: If you thought the French guy was sexy, didn't you also get the feeling, when Gere's character confronted him, that it was a meeting of a grownup and a boy?

A suburban housewife(who is dressed as plain jane but wears hooker shoes) meets French book dealer(who sounds like he just came from Mexico). She is bored with her nice but dull Richard Gere and I guess the other guy is much more irresistible because he is "French" and wears a scarf. They start a steamy sexual affair and carry on without a care in the world. Nice husband eventually gets suspicious about why his wife doesn't want to get it on anymore and hires a private investigator. In the meantime, our little wifey obviously thinks that the "French" stud is faithful to her and is shocked to find out that he is definitely a gigolo.
Husband, upon finding out that his darling is having an affair, goes to her lover's apartment and brazenly declares "I'm her husband". To which the lover boy says"Oh, ok, you want a drink?" After having a drink, Richard Gere gets enraged(which I thought was the most pathetic acting I've seen in a long time) and kills the other guy. Then, he does a few other stupid things -like tries to drag the dead body out the apartment, apparently not worrying if anybody sees him and rides around with it for a while before dumping it . Eventually, he has to tell his lying cheating wife that he killed her lover and I guess he has to turn himself in. Movie ends on this note, where the wife is begging him not to do it and they could just disappear to Mexico(visit the boyfriend's relatives perhaps?). This was supposed to be a drama but I was laughing through the whole time.

THIS MOVIE HAD THE BEST EROTIC SCENE EVER ......WHEN THE WIFE WENT TO THIS GUY'S APT. , SHE WANTED HIM SO BAD THAT AFTER SHE LEFT THE APT AND TURNED HIM DOWN SHE HASSLED BACK TO HIM WILDLY AND THEY WENT FOR IT LIKE THERE IS NO TOMORROW...HER BELLY WAS SHEVERING AS IF THIS IS A REAL FRIST TIMER WITH MULTIPLE ORGASM.... AFTERWARDS THE MOVIE TAKES YOU INTO A JOURNEY WITH OUR ETERNAL CONFLICT BETWEEN OUR INSTINCTS AND MORALS......THE CLASSIC TRIANGLE OF A HUSBAND,CHEATING WIFE , AND A LOVER BUT THIS ONE IS CUTTING DEEP INTO OUR NATURES.....REALLY WORTH BEING IN YOUR COLLECTION.

Months before the award ceremonies that honoured 2002 began, there seemed to be an unspoken decision among the powers that be that the actress of the year would be Nicole Kidman for delivering what was essentially a supporting role in Stephen Daldry's brilliant film THE HOURS. A shame really. While Meryl Streep delivered what was arguably her finest work to date in the same film, the Actress of the year was undoubtedly Diane Lane for her honest, naked work in this perfectly realised melodrama. Adrian Lyne's best work always seems to spring forth when he examines women & their emotions. Sharing similarities with FATAL ATTRACTION in it's study of urban angst, the power of the film springs from a screenplay that doesn't justify Connie's(Diane Lane)behaviour. When we first meet her, it appears she has everything. A stable homelife, a handsome, loving husband & son. Literally crashing into a handsome bookdealer during a violent windstorm(aided by a very clever credit sequence..watch closely), Connie slowly but surely begins a hot, torrid affair. Unable to resist the temptation, watch her closely as she wrestles with herself(& with him). Her train trip home following her first sexual encounter is a wonder to behold. In flashback we are shown the encounter while Connie alternately laughs, cries, squirms & exalts as she rejoices in her own(almost new)sexuality. To watch her behaviour as she(& we)realizes how much her handsome new lover has set her free, the feeling is infectious. Ably supported by Richard Gere( a big year for this guy) & Olivier Martinez, Lyne delivers a film filled with honesty & warmth. More than just a fantastic central performance, for my money, this is one of the best films of 2002.

Lane plays a housewife who has an raunchy affair with a young french loser who supposedly makes her quiver in a way her husband doesn't. Her husband is a good provider, loving father and caring husband that worships the ground she walks on. So it doesn't make sense why she felt a need to have an affair. She displays guilt for her actions but she keeps cheating anyways... again... and again... and again with her french sex machine. All we know about the french guy is that he can read braille, has plenty of band aids in his apartment and loves to have sex. Eventually, her husband finds out and bops the french sex machine on the head with a snowglobe and hides his body. And voila, their marriage is saved and they live happily ever after looking over their shoulders for pending murder charges. A protagonist is the character that changes the most or learns the most in the story and an antagonist is the character that changes the least or refuses to learn. I felt like the story was all antagonists. None of the characters seemed to evolve by the end of the story. It is hard to relate and enjoy a story without any protagonists.

I mean HOT. Make no mistake about it: It's Hot and Steamy; you'll get a rise out of it. But the reason I gave it 3 stars was because the plot is predictable, the resulting fury of her husband when he finds out goes unpunished, she herself goes unpunished, and the movie ends lamely. Quite honestly, after I saw this movie, I couldn't stand Gere's guts.

I loved the imagedry of this film. The acting was superb on Diane Lane and Oliver Martinez parts. Richard Gere, I did not care for him nor his character. The plot was wonderful and this is one of my favorite films that I am sure I will continue to watch over and over.

This movie is well done. The only character I didn't care for was the husband.

The movie was good,but what made me sad was Richard Gere's character killing Diane Lane's lover's character.When I was watching this movie I was rooting for Diane Lane's character more than anyone else and I wished the affair wasn't found out.I had watched love movies in which the one having the affair is never caught.One movie is a foreign flick,The Key which was great.I give this movie a good grade but I wished the plot was different.