Rating: 
Summary: Uninspiring
Review: If asked to name a guilty pleasure--a movie that connives and contrives--I would have to say "Fatal Attraction." At times straining credibility and always titillating while terrifying, "F.A." was a masterpiece of melodrama and eroticism. Yes, sex can be spicy, racy, tempestuous, but also deadly. Glenn Close physically embodies all of the emotional pitfalls of an affair, and it's not too much of a stretch that she also stood in as a surrogate for AIDS and all of the STDs that became pandemic in the 1980s. Really, if you fooled around, you could die."Unfaithful," from the same director, Adrian Lyne,is NOT a bookend to "Fatal Attraction." It's not the complement of what happens when a woman has a one-night stand and things go terribly awry. In Lyne's latest offering, he does not explore two "sinners" who are both flawed, strong, compelling individuals. Whereas Douglas and Close were both smart, bright, smug, supposedly adult adulterers, Diane Lane and Olivier Martinez have no recognizable traits, no interesting quirks or personalities. Lane is a pampered, suburban haus frau who resides in a home as large as the White House. Bigger in fact. She and her son, who seems slightly backward, are kept in the lap of luxury by husband Richard Gere. Yes, that's right. The "American Gigolo" star, who hasn't aged at all, just grayed a bit, is the cuckolded husband. It seems impossible to accept that this woman who fills her days with fund-raising and facials would need to stray from a man rich enough to buy a national monument-sized house to live in. There is no reason ever supplied why Lane connects with Martinez. Yes, he is sexy; yes, he is smoldering. He speaks with a French accent, likes jazz music, but he also comes across as an arrogant, untrustworthy sleaze. If Lane had been bedding down with Danny Devito for the past 15 years, perhaps I could understand her headlong rush into bed with Martinez. But, please, she's been making whoopee with Richard Gere. Improbable and cliche-ridden, "Unfaithful" offers nothing to sink one's teeth into. Olivier Martinez as the "younger man" is supposed to be an expert in vintage books. It's quite laughable since he doesn't look as if he can even read a complete sentence in English. The repercussions of Lane's infidelity are exaggerated and preposterous. As an actress, Lane does portray facially the guilt, the sudden rush, the depression, and the exhilaration of cheating. However, I believe it's her impressive physique and willingness to go nude that will stay in most watchers' minds. Not a good movie, not a sexy movie, not a movie worth a second viewing. "Unfaithful" is uninspiring.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, but unsatisfying
Review: Diane Lane's performance in this movie was nominated for a Golden Globe and Academy Award, enough to pique my interest and excuse to tell myself that I was watching it to explore its artistic merits rather than its titillating ones. It's no secret that this film shows a lot of skin, it is after all the tale of Diane Lane's suburban housewife Connie Summers cheating on her husband Edward (Richard Gere) with annoying Frenchman Paul (Oliver Martinez). The complexity of the husband-wife relationship was well played out because while at the surface there's nothing wrong with their relationship, it was shown how Connie had needs that just couldn't be found in her marriage. It was a little frustrating how secondary characters in the movie served no real purpose but to impose their world views on the leads, it was all too obvious and easy. The filmmaker also had this annoying habit of focusing the frame on inanimate objects, like he was purposely trying force visual metaphors. The ending was terrible though, as if the writer had run out of ideas. I'm not sure how I would have wanted the movie to end, but the way it was played out in the film was not it. All in all, the movie was generally entertaining while I was watching it but deeply unsatisfying when it was done.
Rating: 
Summary: SICK
Review: As an admirer of Adrian Lyne, I can't express enough how very disappointed I was in what could have been a terrific film. The first half of the movie was engrossing. I watched with fixed eyes as the seemingly happy married couple was soon no more after an accidental meeting with the wife and a younger man that grew into a steamy affair. Their affair was interesting to us because it was for no other reason than mere passion they couldn't deny, not because of her unhappiness at home. There were even moments I found their affair touching. Which brings me to my disgust in both she and hubby's lack of remorse for what the Mr. does to her lover when he discovers her betrayal. The murder scene was done well, very believable and shocking, but what transpires from then on is just ridiculous and pathetic. If what we are to believe is that these were average, healthy and happy people, tell me why--HOW-- the husband drives to his son's school play with the dead body of his wife's lover in his car trunk? AND HE'S ABLE TO SIT AND WATCH THE PLAY?! Afterwards, he gets into the car with his son he loves so much-- dead body still inside -- and drives him home?? The point I'm trying to make is the murder was unintentional, a crime of passion, so for him to still carry on in such a sick (not to mention stupid) manner really irked me. After the dense wife stumbles onto what hubby has done, she cries a few tears for her deceased lover and then focuses on her marriage and how to hold it together?? Nice. Never mind that someone she supposedly loved was murdered, but to even consider staying in the same house with the man who was responsible for it is just plain sick. Oh, and the fact that the murder instrument was brought back to their "loving" home and gazed upon and smiled upon sort of jars my nerves as well. Were we, the audience, supposed to look upon this young, unthinking French lover as someone so terrible that he deserved to die and then be forgotten? Somehow our attention and concern was directed to the "unfortunate" couple whose marriage was at risk because of this "inconvenient" murder in the way. Aww, shame. The whole latter half of this film made my stomach turn at its coldness and insensitivity. The only one I felt any pity for was the French boy for having the misfortune of meeting such a callous woman and then killed because of her, and not ever really missed.
Rating: 
Summary: Stunning film - Diane Lane is stunningly brilliant
Review: UNFAITHFUL was a stunning motion picture. Everything about this movie is classy and cool. DIANE LANE (who is a favourite of mine - any actress who claims to have a fetish for thigh-high boots is cool in my mind!) gives a great performance and thoroughly deserves her awards and Oscar nomination. It was one of the most talked about and acclaimed performances of the year and I hope that means she wins the Oscar! Gere is also surprisingly effective in this stunning film. Well done Mr Adrian Lyne and Ms Lane!
Rating:
Summary: could have been better
Review: The first half of this movie is very compeling. Diane Lane strikes up an affiar with a very handsome book dealer to excape the routine of every day life. This movie isn't preachy as many have said, in fact, it never really picks a side as to what Diane Lanes character Connie Sumner should do. Shold she be cheating on her husband (Richard Gere) or should she not? It is very neutral, just showing the life of this interesting woman and the choices she has made. Diane Lane is pitch pefect as Connie Sumner. Lane's portail of a guilty but loving it woman is amazing. She really shines here... her character is similar to her is A Walk on the Moon, a cheating wife, but she has been getting much more accolades for this role, including an Oscar nomination. She has really come into her own here. But, in the middle the film takes a turn and goes from being an interesting and moving character study of Connie to "sexy thriller". It loses Connie and is more about Richard Gere's character and ridiculous plot twists. This was a very disapointing turn. If the film just continued to depend on Diane Lanes amazing performance the ending would have been very satisfying. Instead, the director chose "Hollywood" the movie up by throwing in a murder that doesn't quite fit and some more of a more famous face... Richard Gere. The central character here is Connie, it should have stayed that way. This movie is worth seeing for Lanes performance, and the begining of the movie is extremely well put together. The last half is just not up to par.
Rating:
Summary: The Consequence of Infidelity is: Predictable
Review: Director Adrian Lyne had some experience with marital infidelity in his film FATAL ATTRACTION. In that movie, Lyne portrays cheating as but the precursor to one of the parties concerned going predictably unglued and with tragic results. Some ten years later, Lyne returns to the same theme in UNFAITHFUL, but this time, he shows a couple that on the surface seems content but as the viewer begins to dig through the onion layers that form the marriage, that viewer can see a wife Connie Sumner (Diane Lane), who ought to be happy that she has it all: a loving husband Edward, (Richard Gere), a cute young son, an affluent life style that affords her the leisure to while away the hours in volunteer fund raising. But this superficial joviality lets the viewer know her grip on the marriage is weakening. She is bored sexually with her husband and is fast approaching forty. To an audience raised on the climate of fear first raised by Lyne in FATAL ATTRACTION, her problems are immediately evident. It is no surprise, then, that Connie is set for an affair with a dashing Frenchman Paul (Olivier Martinez). Their first rendevouz is a harmless meeting, with their doing nothing more than holding hands before her guilt propels her out the door. Yet, clearly she will return, and when she does, their affair begins. The sex scenes show a side of Connie totally lacking in the one scene of physical intimacy that she shares with her husband. In that single scene, he joins her in a tub, and she quickly exits, leaving him to wonder why. The various graphic scenes of sex contrapuntally set off what is missing in her marriage: a sense of daring that Paul can fulfil but Edward cannot. Connie is seen as a bored woman who is warned by her best friend that all affairs turn out as disasters. Edward, for his part, is a decent sort of man, but in the hands of Director Lyne, decency is not enough to ward off impending calamity. It is this sense of calamity that imbues UNFAITHFUL with more than a touch of a Lifetime movie of the week. Their relationship both before and after the affair is put under a microscope. The predictability that dilutes the movie's impact is evident in the first few scenes. With the focus of the marriage on Connie, given the not-so-subtle title, the viewer can follow the clearly marked roadsigns that point to one plot complication after another. The only surprise is how the movie's core of violence will play itself out. Given the choice that Director Lyne presents between showing the results of marital infidelity first found in FATAL ATTRACTION and then later in UNFAITHFUL, any spouse thinking of fooling around is more likely to be spooked by the violence of Glen Close in FATAL ATTRACTION than by the tepid ending of UNFAITHFUL.
Rating:
Summary: Five stars for Diane Lane
Review: I'm beginning to wish that one-time director of TV commercials Lyne weren't quite so addicted to the issue of male-female relationships, particularly adultery. It's somewhat shocking that the same man who directed the highly entertaining Flashdance and the powerful Jacob's Ladder has also done at least three films dealing with marital betrayal: Fatal Attraction (oh, please!), Indecent Proposal (you have got to be kidding!) and now Unfaithful. He never seems to know how to end these films, so they go on, seemingly for hours. What rescues this latest look at adultery is Diane Lane's performance. Lane has always been better than the majority of films in which she's appeared. This time out, she hits it right on the money--deservingly nominated for an Academy Award. Gere is considerably less believable as the husband for whom integrity is everything. (It's interesting that he pulls a hat trick in Chicago but wasn't nominated for, arguably, the best performance of his career.) Erik Per Sullivan is lovely as the son of this couple; a child actor who actually looks like a real kid. And Olivier Martinez is hugely appealing as the young Frenchman Lane finds so compellingly attractive. Ultimately, the wheels come off this vehicle and it hits the wall. It just doesn't want to end; there are three, four, five intimitations that it's finally over. But, no. On it goes. And the final scene, perhaps meant to leave us wondering, merely leaves us relieved that this movie, at last, has come to an end. Definitely worth seeing for Diane Lane, and for some lovely cinematography. But Adrian Lyne should go back to making TV commercials or find different material.
Rating: 
Summary: Mon, dooyer, zis is great!
Review: See this for the fantastic scene where Richard Gere clobbers a smug French guy over the bonce. For a full minute you are given the pleasure of seeing the blood pore down his face before he collapses in a heap on the floor. I highly recommend this film. Unfortunately, I've had to knock off a star because the film portrays Gere as feeling guilt over the death of French man and decides to turn himself in. Let's get real, people.
Rating:
Summary: Alluring Infidelity
Review: Adrian Lyne loves covering the topic of adultery and "Unfaithful" is no exception to the rule, much in the vein of his more renowned "Fatal Attraction". Based on Claude Chabrol's "La Femme Infidele", it is the story of a risky extramarital affair and this time the adulterer is the wife. Diane Lane is Connie Sumner, a young and radiant housewife raising eight-year old son Charlie (Per Sullivan) in a Shangri-La section of rural New York with Edward (Gere), her husband of eleven years. On her way one morning to pick some things up for an auction, powerful gusts of wind literally sweep her into the arms of a young French bookdealer named Paul Martel (Martinez). Paul is tempting, debonair and handsome, luring Connie not only into his apartment to bandage her skinned knees but also into his bed several times in the near future. Connie is frightened by potency of her attraction to Paul but nonetheless begins a rabid love affair with him, her tightly scheduled and mundane lifestyle becoming reckless and self-indulgent. Edward's insecurities and jealous-husband radar pick up on Connie's extracurricular activities and he hires a private detective to follow her. His suspicions confirmed by several black and white photos with Paul and Connie necking and prancing around town, he decides to confront his wife's playboy and their meeting does not end well. The course of events after their encounter is strange and unpredictable, the movie's ending left open to interpretation, viewers drawing their own conclusions as to what may or may not have happened. Reworking Chabrol's story are veteran screenwriters Alvin Sargent and William Broyles, Jr., the former known for his screenplays for "White Palace" and "Other People's Money" and the latter gaining critical acclaim for his screenplay to Steven Spielberg's "Cast Away". Of course, what makes this movie appealing is not necessarily the dialogue but the execution of its actors and the steamy love scenes between Diane Lane and Olivier Martinez. Lane is fantastic. Her best moments on screen contain no dialogue, only the transmittal of raw emotion through her face and body. Her scene on the subway train after her first close encounter with Paul is mesmerizing; sighing with ecstasy, smiling and even nervously laughing amidst a river of guilty tears, Connie fights the emotions stirring inside of her and Lane boldly executes her inner turmoil.
Gere is fair, still retaining that roguish and tousled look of a man in his thirties. Although he is capable of giving a guts-and-glory performance, the story lends Lane the spotlight and Gere the shadow. Olivier Martinez, a relatively new face to the big screen, gives Paul that sex appeal that all European men seem to reap from American women with the greatest of ease (not hard, being a real "homme de Paris", n'est ce pas?). Although "Unfaithful" is as entertaining as its precursor "Fatal Attraction", a lot of issues are left up in the air. Why did Connie have an affair with Paul? Did the jealousy of her husband drive her away? Was it the need for a significant spice in the mediocrity of her life? Was Connie simply too weak to resist temptation and Paul much too persuasive? Did she rationalize her decision to have an affair or did she simply act on impulse? From whence do Edward's insecurities stem? Of course, these questions will never be answered because Lyne is the kind of director who relishes the varied interpretations of his audience, never revealing the "true" meaning behind unfolding events. For the most part, "Unfaithful" is slick entertainment for people who crave a good deal of sexual titillation with their rental price. They will be assured plenty of it and some good performances to boot.
Rating:
Summary: Diane Lane finally gets her due
Review: I've been fascinated with Diane Lane for years now as a movie star. She's made a career of mostly being "the girlfriend" in a multitude of films, mostly consisting the males getting the real business of the film done around her. Don't get me wrong. Even with an astonishingly beautiful face, she was a strong character who held her own. But even in one of her strongest roles in "Lonesome Dove", she still needs Robert Duvall to rescue her. I wish she could have continued the role she created when they did "Streets of Laredo" to see how she could have handled the stronger role Sissy Spacek did very well. With "Unfaithful", she finally gets the role of her life. She plays a woman who's marriage gets interrupted with the introduction of an affair. Since the movie poster shows who practices the title adjective, it's not giving away anything to say it's her who's having the affair. And when the husband is "American Gigolo" himself, Richard Gere, the object of the affair probably has to be pretty hunky himself. This comes in the form of Olivier Martinez, who looks much like Richard Gere would today if here were 20 years younger, had an ethnic flair to him, and wore his hair and beard the way hunky guys do today. Although they meet loosely due to his profession as a book dealer, and there is a brief attempt at a mental connection, this is a hot and heavy, no holds barred physical attraction from the get go. This is one of the rare modern films that treats adult sexuality in a mature, adult manner, and for that I give the movie much praise. What makes the movie great is that Lane is not in a bad marriage at all. Gere is, well, Richard Gere, but he's also a strong husband, and good provider who loves his wife very much. So there is no beating husband to give her sympathy, and she's not even shopping for an affair. It just crosses her path, and she falls for the hunk hook, line, and sinker. So while it is shown that she wants the affair, and keeps coming back to him, you also see the guilt side build up in her. This is essentially a good person who has a flaw. We don't cheer for her, but we also don't necessarily hate her, either. The performance deserves an Oscar nomination. The only problem is that something physically bad happens to one of the three. I would have hoped to see how the affair could have been resolved other than by violent means, which would have been a bigger challenge to the script. But even this is redeemed, and how it has the remaining two character (I won't reveal which two) have to learn to adjust to the situation would give this one four and a half stars if I could.
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