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Unfaithful (Widescreen Edition)

Unfaithful (Widescreen Edition)

List Price: $14.98
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Unorthodox thriller highlighted by Diane Lane's performance
Review: "Unfaithful" is an unorthodox thriller disguised as a conventional story of infidelity. By breaking the Hollywood rules of the genre, it risks alienating as many viewers as it enthralls. The plot outline itself has been used countless times: Wife meets sexy younger man. Passionate affair ensues. Husband finds out. All hell breaks loose.

The wife is Connie Summer [Diane Lane]. She lives the good suburban life in Westchester County, NY with her husband, Edward [Richard Gere] and their young son. One windy day she goes to New York City where she literally bumps into a beautiful Frenchman named Paul [Oliver Martinez]. He invites her up to his apartment. Connie is aroused by this fascinating, intelligent, manipulative guy. He does not seduce her on the first visit. He waits for her to return, which she soon does, to begin the affair. They become obsessed with each other. It isn't long before her changed behavior alerts Edward to the fact that something is amiss. Eventually, he has a confrontation with Paul, but the meeting goes terribly wrong. Connie and Edward are left to deal with the aftermath of her affair.

Here are some of the ways in which "Unfaithful" differs from ordinary thrillers: Connie does not stray because her husband is cold or psychotic; in fact, he's a nice guy whom she apparently loves. No reasons are given for why she falls for Paul. She does it for reasons of the heart, and who can ever reasonably explain such a thing? The police are not key characters in the story. Connie and Edward essentially deal with their problem alone. There is no pat conclusion. We are allowed to decide for ourselves what will become of them. Finally, there is no villain. The movie is empathetic towards everyone in this love triangle.

The acting is uniformly good and is highlighted by a wonderful, award winning performance by Lane.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Modern Day Tragedy...
Review: comes to life on the screen. In this movie we are introduced to Connie (Diane Lane) a married woman and mother, who inadvertantly and literally stumbles into the arms of a charming Frenchman named Martel. What ensues is is a growing obsession on her part with the mysterious Martel, until the inevitable happens: The two wind up in bed and other places over and over again.

Connie fashions all the excuses and cover-ups common to such a situation, but her lies begin to catch up with her and things unravel in a hurry. Tensions grow out of control and a stunning turn of events occur.

This is an unusual role for Richard Gere who plays the cuckolded husband. He does a wonderful job taking us through the emotions that many of us would feel in such a situation. The movie is filmed very darkly and without giving too much away, is a downer. Yet it is excused by the superb way in which the subject matter is handled. In many ways, watching this film is like watching a slow motion car crash; You shouldn't look, but you can't seem to help it. In a day where infidelity is often treated in a flip and sarcastic manner, this movie shows the tragic aftermath of betrayal.

All in all it is well-made and entertaining.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Diane Lane's Tour de Force
Review: In Adrian Lyne's "Unfaithful", Diane Lane is finally given a role worthy of her considerable talents ... and proceeds to play it flawlessly. Cast as a housewife and mother in her mid-thirties who stumbles (literally) into an affair with a much younger man, Lane never strikes a false note as her character ricochets between feelings of uncertainty, exhuberance, pleasure, intense eroticism, then finally guilt, shame, despair and fear. It's a remarkable, career-crowning performance in which the actress uses her entire being as an instrument. Her mellifluous voice is pitched just a notch below normal, lending a delicate rawness to her character's words; her body communicates volumes as it shivers with sexual anticipation or recoils with self-reproach;
her delicate face is a mirror reflecting an unending stream of volatile and often conflicting emotions. It's taken 23 years for Lane's talent to fulfill the promise she demonstrated as a teenager in 1979's "A Little Romance", but unquestionably, this performance was well worth the wait.

Happily, the film is not just a one-woman show. As Lane's cuckolded husband, Richard Gere plays against type with a quiet intensity and growing sense of desperation that finally erupts in one of the best scenes he's ever committed to film. His is a beautifully restrained, deeply felt performance that complements Lane's work perfectly. Despite the fact that these two characters are deeply flawed, the actors make them intriguingly sympathetic and undeniably fascinating. Olivier Martinez offers strong support as Lane's lover, and Chad Lowe also scores in his brief scenes as one of Gere's friends and employees.

On the technical side, the film is expertly edited (especially note the sequence in which Lane rides the train home while remembering the events of the afternoon; and the one in which Lane and Gere both dress while in different cities), and the musical score is both lush and haunting. Film buffs will note several clever homages to Lyne's "Fatal Attraction" (a butcher knife on a counter; drama in an elevator; a woman driving recklessly while in emotional crisis; a man slipping into a secured residential building, etc.).

In addition to a superb video and sound transfer, the DVD offers a wealth of fascinating extras: the Original Theatrical Trailer;
a documentary on the making of the movie; an excerpt from Charlie Rose's television interview with Lyne, Lane, and Gere; the director's script notes; individual interviews with the three top-billed actors and the film's editor; trailers for two of Fox's 2003 releases; deleted scenes (including an alternate ending); and more! This one's definitely a must-own for (mature) audiences who appreciate great acting and expert filmmaking.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Tour de Force for Adrian Lyne
Review: UNFAITHFUL is an example of how understatement in a film speaks louder than spectacle. Director Lyne has aptly selected a cinematographer, a score composer, and a script with as much space given to silence as to words to present a platform for three outstanding actors to take us on a journey through attraction, lust, betrayal, murder, and forgiveness. Diane Lane is incredibly fine in her stellar role as a woman who enters into an affair (with the sensitive and senusous Olivier Martinez) and manages to play out every aspect of this fantasy (both good and bad) in her body and facial language. Richard Gere, an underrated and very fine actor, is the perfect foil for this encounter with adultery. Lyne knows his craft and keeps a tension that explores the full scale of emotions by judicious use of every aspect of making a film. Highly recommended.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Honest, in-depth portrayal of infidelity (with some flaws)
Review: This movie is so well-done, I was tempted to give it 5 stars, but some irksome flaws kept me from doing so. Even so, it is still well worth seeing, for so many reasons... Diane Lane, for one, shown here as a middle-aged wife who falls into an affair with a much younger man, ignoring her best impulses, the ones that tell her this is a mistake. Newcomer Olivier Martinez is another plus in this film...he has a sizzling eroticism that jumps off the screen and he plays it to the hilt, making Connie's betrayal of her marriage and her conventional life truly believable- only the strongest female viewer will be able to watch the scenes of them together without a quickening pulse (or more).
To director Lyne's credit, he shows how infidelity inevitably colors and poisons a marriage, creeping into the tiniest aspects of life, forcing guilty looks, lies and nervousness at even the most innocent or unexpected times. Richard Gere, playing Connie's husband, Edward, is superb at showing a man who knows his wife so well that he practially smells the deceit in the air before she walks in the door.
The flaws? Martinez is a bit of a stereotype, seemingly charming at first, then showing darker, more unpleasant sides. Perhaps the movie would have benefited from a more complex person, unlike the rather callow person he reveals himself to be. Also, I thought it odd that Connie ran into family acquaintances while with him, even though the odds were against this...and then an employee from Edward's company happens to see them as well. Too much of a stretch for me to believe.
But these are minor flaws in a movie made with intelligence, integrity and a complexity that goes far beyond the norm for this type of film - and without a pat ending, either.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Movie is very good. DVD has great extras.
Review: Anyone who has watched 'Lonesome Dove' or 'A Walk on the Moon' already knows what a great actress Diane Lane is. Once they have listened to her interviews and scene commentaries on this DVD, they will know that she is also a very intelligent, kind, and unassuming woman.
Plenty has been said about the movie, which I liked very much, but not enough to keep it. The DVD is loaded with nice extras including: director's commentary, specific scene commentary by principle actors, quite a few deleted scenes (most of which are very interesting), a well done 'making of' documentary, and interesting interviews with Diane, Richard, and Olivier.
Definitely worth checking out.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Your Screen Will Get Hot
Review: This movie was sexy as hell, and the storyline keeps you interested from beginning to end, while you find yourself stepping back and questioning your ideal marriage.....Don't miss this one!! The Musical Score was superb!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Diane Lane is magnificent in this movie
Review: Unfaithful tells the story of Edward (Richard Gere) and Connie (Diane Lane). They have the perfect life. They're successful, they're happy. Obliviously happy it would seem, for a chance encounter with a handsome bookseller, leads Connie to make the biggest mistake of her life.
Diane Lane gives one of her best performances to date There may be no words to explain those feelings, but I knew how she felt anyway, simply by watching her. This is what truly fine acting is about, this ability to communicate without words, to distill thought and feeling into the most authentic body language

Richard Gere is the first name in most of the ads for Unfaithful, it should be Diane Lane :)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Shes definetly playing the "Hardball" in this movie
Review: After watching Diane Lane in the movies "Perfect Storm" and "Hardball" you would think she was this goody goody actress, but in "Unfaithul" she got rid of that image. The movie is about this family (Diane Lane and Richard Gere) raising a child played by the excellent dramatic actor Erik Per Sullivan. Everything seems normal until the wife meets a stranger named Paul Martel (Olivier Martinez) on the street that helps her after she falls and hurts her knees. Well she just can't get enough of this Paul Martel so she starts to visit him all the time and then the relationship turns intimate then we go back to the title "Unfaithfull". Once she starts, she just can't stop, I do not recommend letting anyone younger than 18 or older than 50 to watch this movie. The situations in this movie are pretty often and everywhere/anywhere. But of course that kind of relationship does not stay secluded so be aware of a plot twisting near ending. Just when you think its over theres more. So why am I giving this 4 stars and not five being that a guy like me liked this? I was about to give it 3 stars. The movie just dropped my focus at the end. It leaves you wanting more or less. So would I buy this movie? There is a good chance. So enjoy the movie at your own risk.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best movies!
Review: I don't know where to begin to tell you just how amazing this film is. Diane Lane and Richard Gere playing a married couple with one child and no apparent marital problems, that is until Lane meets a handsome and sexy book collector in the city and soon she begins an affair with the man and tries to hide it from her husband. This affair soon becomes deadly and both Gere and Lane land themselves up in the middle of mess with the police with a very deadly secret.
Why is this movie so great? Well, the actors are amazing, the plot and story just seem to draw you in and not let you go from beginning to end. The score beefs the thrills up a huge notch also. The sex is amazing and very steamy, I must admit I enjoyed watching the movie for simply that reason. This film was brilliantly directed and it seems a lot of work and effort went into this sleeper hit, and it shows. If you're into adult thrillers, or even just greatly written, acted and directed films, this is a must own. One of the greatest things I loved about this film was the fact that Lane never tried to explain as to why she was cheating, she never had an excuse, it was just something she did to feel good for the time being and felt guilty for afterwards. Which in turn is great and symbolizes human beings, that everyone has dark secrets we feel guilty about, we can't help but do them and even though we know it's wrong, we have noone or nothing to blame but our own selfish lust.
One great movie, I loved it!


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