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Unfaithful (Widescreen Edition)

Unfaithful (Widescreen Edition)

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fatal Attraction
Review: The first half hour of viewing, I was thinking I was going to see a millenium version of "Fatal Attraction", but fortunately, Adrian Lynne switches gears and mixes it up, directing a haunting and sad, forbidden love story. All of the acting was top notch, I was especially impressed with Richard Geres performance, he did a genuine job playing a downtrodden husband. I truely felt sorry for his character. I also enjoyed the acting by the italian lover (don't know his name). He's a great actor. This film also has one of the most disturbing, real life looking murder scenes I've ever seen in film, I couldn't even watch it, I had to turn my head away form the tv. The ending of the film was a bit disappointing. It's really hard for films like this to have a spectacular ending, but overall, this was an interesting film.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Worthy adult viewing...
Review: Good performances all around in this tale of the unintended, catastrophic consequences of cheating on your mate. Diane Lane willingly starts a hot affair with a younger man, seemingly seduced by his French accent and air of intellectualism as much as by his looks. Her marriage to Richard Gere does not seem bad. She is not abused and he is still having sex with her. If he neglects her at all, it is usually to pay more attention to their son. The couple has enough money, and Diane has friends. There seems no real justification for her decision to break her vows. Her lover appears charming at first, but in the week or two of their daily sexual encounters he does a few small, selfish or inappropriate things. Richard Gere is no dummy, and he catches on quickly, partly because Diane gets impatient and careless and leaves him plenty of hints. Whether this is deliberate or not is left to the viewer to decide. What transpires after hubby decides to have a talk with the lover changes every life for the worst. First Diane lies to cover up her afternoon delights, then Richard is the one forced to lie, then Diane realizes what happened between her spouse and her lover. Finally the two of them have to decide what to do next. The decision, to me, seems clear, but is not actually shown on screen. Diane Lane has a great role here, depicting the guilty enjoyment of her affair, which quickly becomes a daily obsession and leads to her letting her lover get away with cheating of his own. She has intense climaxes, feels guilty afterwards, intends to quit, but returns for more. The film, however, never justifies her choice, to its credit. Richard's role is quite understated, except when circumstances lead him first to panic and then to deceive and finally to confront his wife and his own actions. What Richard does about the affair is also either deliberate or accidental, depending on each viewer's opinion. This film, like "Fatal Attraction" reveals the dangers of cheating, but from a totally different point of view. In common with the earlier film, there is an exciting sex scene or two, or three, but the subsequent dangers faced by the parties affected are quite different. I liked it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Diane Lane gives Oscar winning performance
Review: Diane Lane gives the performance of a lifetime as Connie Sumner in Unfaithful. This moral tragedy begins when upon a chance encounter Connie throws caution to the wind and has an affair with Olivier Martinez (as Paul Martel). What Connie doesn't realize until her lunch with Kate Burton (Richard Burton's daughter in real life) is she is sewing the seeds of her own destruction. Diane Lane's stellar performance is truly remarkable and most Oscar worthy. Unfortunately Adrian Lyne's film direction emphasizes Diane Lane's physical attributes over her acting ability which is probably why he will not win an Oscar for best director and why the film will most likely suffer the same fate. However, in spite of Adrian Lyne's direction, Diane Lane's spellbinding performance really shines through.

Adrian Lyne borrows from the Max Färberböck directed German film Aimee and Jaguar to portray Connie's first assignation with Paul. I can truly appreciate Ms. Lane's marvelous form but it can distract the viewer from the internal conflict between her pleasure and her conscience during the liaison and her post-coital guilt and remorse on the train. Her angst is so overpowering that I don't believe I have ever seen another actress display such overwhelming sorrow as well as Diane Lane has in the famous train scene. Her performance is truly heartfelt and should win her an Oscar.

However, Adrian Lyne diminished his chances of an Oscar by borrowing from the wrong film. Instead he should have borrowed from the Thomas Crown Affair directed by Norm Jewison and starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. There is a scene in this film where the protagonist, Steve McQueen, is playing chess with his antagonist, Faye Dunaway, in what I regard as one of the most highly erotic scenes in the history of cinema. The camera switches between facial shots of the two, building into a crescendo of eroticism that is so visibly apparent on the two characters faces that you end up viewing one of the most memorable lovemaking scenes without ever seeing their bodies. Norm Jewison, in a true genius fashion, let the power of the viewers' imagination take over.

If Adrian Lyne borrowed from the Thomas Crown Affair he could have shown rapidly switching shots of Diane Lane's face in the bedroom scene and on the train. Her face tells the whole story. Eroticism is so much more powerful than sex because it intertwines one's emotional state with the physical arousal enhancing both to indescribably delirious levels. Norm Jewison understands the power of the mind but Adrian Lyne simply could not resist showing off Diane Lane's wonderful form and consequently sold her short. What Adrian Lyne does not seem to realize is that a woman's sexual essence does not come so much from her body as from her state of mind and the best way to portray that on film is to focus on her expression. Diane Lane's eyes tells volumes of her arousal, her sexuality, her womanhood and her internal conflict. Adrian Lyne really could have heightened the film's sexual tension by focusing less on Diane's physical attributes-and he didn't.

A case in point-In the Restaurant bathroom scene Adrian Lyne could have shot just above the bathroom partition. We all know what is happening. We don't need to be spoon fed. Alfred Hitchcock was the great master of the mind. His films were so great because he stimulated our imagination and led us to draw our own conclusions. I would have deliberately waited until the very last scene in the hallway outside Paul's Apartment before I showed Connie engaged with her paramour. I would have done this because Paul gets his punishment just moments later and thus it reinforces the consequences of sin and betrayal. But more importantly it would have had the viewers' attention focused more on Diane Lane's quintessential acting rather than on her magnificent body.

Switching to the murder Scene-You have to believe that Connie giving away the personal gift of the music box with the crystal globe is what pushes Edward Sumner (Richard Gere) over the edge. In the scene with Paul in Paul's pied à terre Edward is barely coping with Connie's assignations, but her giving away the gift symbolizing the couple's marital bond is the coup de grâce. Of course, it is latter in the film when we realize the true meaning of the gift and that she insouciantly gave it away as if she were discarding broken egg shells into the garbage. Instead it was her marriage which she shattered then tossed without a moment's thought.

Connie's betrayal of Edward and Edward's murder of Paul reduces their marriage to a lugubrious melancholy. There is a scene near the end of the film showing Connie dancing with her son Charlie with a morose expression on her face and her body as limp as a dish rag, shuffling aimlessly, as if she is just going through the motions of life without really experiencing it. In the end nothing Connie and Edward do seems to matter. Things have come full circle. The perpetrators are now the victims and their souls have been extinguished by their most regrettable actions. Their marriage is now a bond of sorrow.

Kate Burton, as Tracy, should also get a best supporting actress Oscar because she frames the devastating consequences of an affair so clearly in her luncheon with Connie and Sally at the corner restaurant. What some people don't seem to realize is that ultimately the affair harms the perpetrator as much as the spouse. Tracy has carried with her the almost unbearable burden of her guilt for a good part of her adult life and her misery and self loathing are painfully evident. The grief shown on Kate Burton's face and the regret she has for betraying herself as well as her husband are quite poignant thus earning her a most deserved Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Perfect fantasy flick for the bored wife
Review: 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?

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bad example of naturalist school
Review: I knew from the start that this was going to be a silly movie. The beginning scenes are filled with naturalist symbology all of which is intended to make the viewer believe somehow that the characters are swept along by the wind to do things that they would not ordinarily do. This horrific wind through Manhattan knocks down the suburban housewife and she literally falls into the handsome, young and seemingly perpetually available male model. I think that happens in New York just about every day. The story then goes from bad to worse.

Of course, the bored housewife can't get the boy out of her mind. We never actually find out why she may be bored, or if there is anything missing in her relationship with her loving and faithful husband. We are just to suspend our disbelief and accept that the wind is making her do it. There is really nothing to most of this movie aside from the sex, which can be found elsewhere.

Once the husband finds out about the affair and murders the lad, the writing goes from bad to rediculous. As the police are investigating the murder, the adulterous wife realizes that her husband is the murderer. Then in one of the most implausible scenes in the history of American film, she says,

"Did you hurt him?"

Notice. There is no guilt in her. Absent is any catharsis. Neither is there any fear of her own responsibility for the tragic events. She just wants to know if her husaband "hurt" her boyfriend. I actually laughed out loud at the absurdity of this dialogue, which was intended to be dramatic.

This is really a terrible and spiritually bankrupt movie. You will be less of a person for having seen it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very good but..........
Review: This movie was very sensual thanks to the directors constant sense memories throughout the film. Oliver Martinez was very good as the charming Frenchman and Dianne Lane delivers the performance of her career. However, I had to subtract one star for Richard Gere. He sickens me ....You can see that in his acting too.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: quite disappointed
Review: My wife wanted to watch this...now I know why. The name of the movie pretty much gives away the plot so very little needs to be said about it. Wife (Diane Lane) is bored and cheats on hubby (Richard Gere) with some young french guy that you can barely understand. Nuff said.

I found this to be incredibly slow. Most of the scenes are way to long and soporific at best. The characters have next to no chemistry and there is very little about them that will cause you to be even slightly interested in them or what they are going through. "Fans" of Diane Lane may find something to entertain them but that is about all I can think of in regards to this movie.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: 2 Movies That Should Have Stayed 1
Review: The front two thirds of this movie is terrific with Diane Lane in the performance of her career as a wife and mother on the cusp of middle age who takes one last plunge into a life of unbridled lust and passion. The object of her affection is the oh so beautiful and young Olivier Martinez while her husband is the dreary, dull, successful and respectable Richard Gere. In the front two thirds of the movie, I was reminded of Jill Clayburgh's performance in "An Unmarried Woman" or Gena Rowlands in "A Woman Under the Influence." Yes, Lane is that good. However, director Adrian Lynn, best known for "Fatal Attraction," can't help himself from reverting to his roots because he decides to make another movie two thirds of the way through, one more like "Fatal Attraction." He should have stayed with the movie he first set out to make, one that had no suspense element whatsoever. This shift also moves Gere into the lead role in the film, moving Lane into more of a supporting role. It is too abrupt and I felt robbed of seeing Lane's being able to give a full lead performance from start to finish. There was also no groundwork with the Gere character, fully fleshing him out, where I could that quickly enter into full sympathy and empathy with his character as Lynn obviously intends. In sum, Worth one viewing but not worth buying.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: MediaGab Review
Review: Richard Gere and Diane Lane star in a story about forbidden love and the destructiveness that adultery bring. Connie Sumner (Diane Lane) is happily married to her lovely husband Edward (Richard Gere). But like all marriages the romance subsides and the routine gets the best of everyone.

Connie has a chance meeting with Paul Martel (Oliver Martinez) and she is struck by his kindness and generosity. She continues to meet with him until she is at the point of no return. She continues the affair and Edward gets more and more suspicious until he hires a friend to follow her during the day.

When he learns the truth he becomes very hurt. We then see how destructive an adulterous affair can be.

I found this movie to be very suspenseful and entertaining. I found that the story moved well through the plot and got us to the end just in time.

I rate this movie 3 out of 5 stars.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent performance from Diane Lane
Review: This was an excellent thriller, very stylish and polished. It's what you would have expected from Adrian Lyne. I thought the plot and story development were excellent. I can't say enough for how good Diane Lane was in this movie. I look forward to the next offering from Mr. Lyne.


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