Rating: Summary: Diane Lane stars in a powerful, provocative, sexy thriller Review: Diane Lane is sooo good in this film. Unfaithful is a great film with great acting and great direction. An engrossing and thought-provoking film with a very haunting and provocative feel to it. Diane Lane especially was magnificent in one of the best displays of acting I have ever seen. Unfaithful is without a doubt one of the best films of the past year. Really, really good.
Rating: Summary: Wasted Talent Review: At the end of this movie I was moved almost to tears . It is more Drama than any movie I have seen in a while . Tragic wast of human life and dignity for cheap sex . Not for romantics as there are no winners or enless love . This presents the potential A bomb of cheating on one's spouse . No movie has ever shown the honest potental danger of lies and betrayal . I am still confused about the last 5 mins . In this movie every person will be left with a boken heart including to viewer .
Rating: Summary: A Marital Tragedy Review: I finally got around to seeing this film. Sure, it got a lot of hype for the steamy scenes, but I think it will get some nods around award time for Lane's performance. She was able to convey several different emotions even in a single scene. The best example of this is her recollection of first time sex with her illicit lover while sitting in a train. Interestingly, this film is not dialogue-driven. It has many pauses, especially in the scenes between Lane and Gere. I found this technique to be both tension-building and realistic [this is how couples "communicate"]. Unfortunately, some may find this slow and boring. The DVD has no flaws in picture or sound quality. The special features are excellent.
Rating: Summary: Not too bad, but does the boyfriend need to be French? Review: I didn't have high hopes for this movie; I think Adrian Lyne trades in cliches for the most part, and that's the case here. The most annoying cliche is that Diane Lane's lover is French. Oh, please. How many French guys are expert dealers in English language books? The guy seems subliterate--he has a roomful of volumes, but seems to know one poem, and he uses it for seduction purposes. But this is one of those movies where you can enjoy it if you can set aside your response to these kinds of cliches and illogical actions on the part of each character. What makes this film somewhat worthwhile is the emotive, nonverbal acting job done by the stars, especially Diane Lane, who is incredibly vivid in taking you through her range of feelings as the affair begins to take hold in her mind. Not only is she great, she's well-directed, as are most of the rest of the cast. Even Frenchy. This is probably Adrian Lyne's most accomplished film.
Rating: Summary: And she was unfaithful why? Review: While this wasn't a horrible movie, it certainly wasn't great. It seemed that the writers didn't spend enough time at the beginning of the movie establishing a relationship between the wife and the lover to make me believe that this reasonably happy woman would go flitting off to the city every day to have a raunchy affair. The fact that her illicit lover was french just seemed like one more cliche, though at least the writers had the good grace not to make him an artist. Unlike the other reviewers, I thought the second half of the movie was rather better than the first, because the interaction between Diane Lane and Richard Gere, with both of them lying but about different things, was rather good.
Rating: Summary: No big deal. Review: I saw the movie last week, and I thought it was nothing special. Another bored housewife cheats on her husband and it never turns out well... Diane Lane was very good with Olivier, but the movie just got freaky and disjointed. Gere's role as MILK SOP took over the end and it just left me blah. A long way to go to no where.
Rating: Summary: Well-acted romantic thriller despite cheesy dialogue Review: There is nothing really original about the script: Diane Lane plays Connie Sumner, a bored, well-to-do housewife and mother who unexpectedly meets a handsome strager and begins an affair with him. During one scene in the movie, Connie's friend tells her that when a spouse is unfaithful, "someone always gets hurt." Ultimately, the viewer is left waiting for this prophecy to be fulfilled, and it is, so this movie definitely isn't one that keeps you guessing or contains any unexpected plot twists. However, the acting of both Lane and--surprisingly--Richard Gere is superb. Lane's love scenes with Oliver Martinez are very steamy without ever becoming raunchy. One scene near the beginning of the movie during which Lane and Martinez simply hold hands for a moment is actually very powerful. Martinez is a very handsome man and plays his part adequately despite some very cheesy lines which made me want to laugh and detracted from the film as a whole. ("There are no mistakes. There is what you do, and what you don't do.") There are also some very suspenseful scenes after Gere discovers Lane's infidelity, but Lane is not yet aware that Gere has made the discovery. The film features a cat and mouse game and some very palpable tension between husband and wife. Gere's and Lane's unasked questions and hurt expressions convey the tragedy of Lane's transgression. Overall, a clever, well-acted, and beautifully filmed movie that kept me thoroughly entertained throughout. Though the film is made by the director of "Fatal Attraction," this is a more adult, understated and compassionate take on the traditional themes of infidelity and revenge.
Rating: Summary: Unfaithful..when emotions become obsessive Review: Diane plays all emotions in one face after she encounters and has an affair with a beautiful frenchman by an accidental meeting.The satisfaction, the lust, the guilt , the jealousy all come to a head..Gere does an amazing job as the loving husband and when things turn for the worse for all..you can see and feel that emotions, when pushed to the brink, can bring the annimal outin anyone. Done amazingly well in direction and acting..as u will see in the behinds look on how the film was made,outtakes and the alternate ending(on DVD!).Sit back with your emotions and ENJOY THE RIDE!!(Lane is up for Golden Globe for best actress!!)
Rating: Summary: Predictable, but entertaining Review: Yes, this film is predictable and highly emotional... whether you can see yourself in one of these characters or not. I'm happy to see the film put such emphasis on the pain that infidelity creates in a relationship. There are so many cliche's here though... bored suburban housewife, french lover, etc. Perhaps the creator of this film wanted the viewers to see the reality of the tragic topic. In any event, the acting was superb - Diane Lane has always been spectacular, and this film allowed her to truly display her many talents. The music in the film created the perfect balance to the dramatic mood of the topic, and couldn't have been better. Excellent film, highly recommended!
Rating: Summary: Deja vu, with a soul Review: None of the ideas in "Unfaithful" is new or ground-breaking, and at times it does make you feel "I'm sure I've seen it somewhere...", some may think, and rightfully so, that this is just another fantasized Hollywood version of the life of a suburban wife. Yet there is no denying that "Unfaithful" is actually a compelling film. Its drawn-out premise was the reason I refused to go to the theatrical release when my partner asked me to. Eventually I got a chance to watch it, and although I was not blown away by it, I was quite surprised by how much it echoed in my mind a few days after I watched it. Many people complained about how unrealistic it is for a middle-age wife to be as gorgeous as Lane, and what a rare chance it could be to run into a foreign language speaking pretty boy. True, but if without the attractive cast to satisfy the more general viewers (quote "Diane Lane naked"), without the additive flavor of sexual fantasy (more than often I heard girls remarking the French boy being "so cute"!), I doubt this movie would have been as successful, financially, of course. The truth is, why Connie (Lane) would fall for the book-selling Paul in the first place is questionable. She has a seemingly perfect family, and more importantly her husband (maturely played by Richard Gere) is loving, caring and affectionate. Also, since Paul's sexual intention was so bluntly obvious, and a devoted mother and wife as Lane was trying to portrait would unable resist is quite unconvincing. However, after Connie and Paul's first rendezvous, the whole movie switches gear from escapism fantasy, to plausible human drama (not saying that it did not change back in the third act). After nearly two decades of being a "playboy", Gere recently shows us what he could do as a performer. His character shows everything an ideal husband could be, with enough dignity and maturity you actually feel for him along the story down to the very last minute. Lane's performance of Connie, who confuses love with lust, is delicately spot-on. The surfacing of her internal struggle is both despiteful and heart-aching. We almost enjoy watching her being tormented, but also desperately hope to linger on that slightest hope that she may be forgiven. The only big exception among the cast is Oliver Martinez. As Paul Martel, he does not have the presence of an exotic, mysterious lover Lane's character would have us believed that she fell for. Instead, he came off as a sleazy, shallow young boy who indulges himself in adolescence's wet dream, whose main concern is picking women with some book tricks so he can go to bed with them (uh...seems like he is speaking for majority of male population today). His worst sin is that, he will have most of the males believe that it is okay sleep around, it is even a good idea to conclude an argument or cover up your mistake for a pseudo-rape sex, since the opposite sex has no dignity or choice of their own. It is also okay to seduce any women if you have the face, as long as you are not stupid enough to confront their husbands. Perhaps that is what we are supposed to feel, but that is also one of the very few places that fails to make "Unfaithful" a faithful and plausible human study. Watching "Unfaithful" is like witnessing the clash between the traditional family value, the moral conscience that defines us as civilized humans, versus the overrated liberation of sexuality that has corrupted so many goods in our society today. The sex scenes are not overly gratuitous, started off titillating and gradually became more realistic, to disturbingly tedious, reminiscing Connie affair, and ultimately her life. Like mentioned above, there are really no new topics that have not been covered before. But under Lyne's direction and strong performance form the lead casts, we are somehow spellbound to watch a tragedy unfold. Even when the inevitable revenge occurs, we felt as confused and complicated as the characters. And rather than feeling exhilarated, we are left with the sorrow that so many things have been wasted just from a split, perhaps selfish decision. The DVD itself has a standard quality transfer, both video transfer and the Dolby 5.1 track one would expect from 20th Century Fox. As for the extra, though there are nothing spectacularly special, the few featurettes, commentaries and the 11 deleted scenes including the alternative ending actually make this a welcoming package. Whether this one is worth adding to your collection, depends on how much faith you have in your partner, and hope that this will never have to happened to anyone.
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