Unfaithful (2002) Grade: B
Cast: Diane Lane, Richard Gere, and Olivier Martinez
Director: Adrian Lyne
Rated R for sex, nudity, language, violence, and thematic elements


"Unfaithful," simply put, is not as smart as it would like to think it is. Sure, it puts an interesting spin on the infidelity genre: a woman who has a happy, loving, fruitful marriage and a great kid begins having an affair with a man she meets in the streets of New York City. I know you're thinking that there has to be something going on that I'm trying to keep from you so as to shock you when you go see the movie. But no. I'm not. There's nothing. What would make a happily married woman put her family at risk? Director Adrian Lyne tries to answer this question and many more in his new mainstream sexathon.

Connie Sumner (Diane Lane) has a perfect life: she doesn't cook, she doesn't clean, and she sure as hell doesn't have a job. Her days consist of driving her en vogue SUV to NYC to shop and surprise her husband Ed (Richard Gere) with cornflower blue Gap sweaters. But one day as she's carrying a ridiculously large amount of books, she gets knocked down during a windstorm and is helped by a kindly Frenchman named Paul Martel (Olivier Martinez). Pretty soon, and after some reluctance on Connie's part, the pseudo-intellectual (who has her read inocuous passages about seizing the day from his gargantuan collection of books) coerces our poor heroine into bed. She feels so bad that she goes back over and over again. But then something shocking happens: her husband finds out.

And unless I missed something early on, Ed is not a very violent man, so is reation and resulting actions are so out of character that even the largest amount of suspension of disbelief may not make this seem plausible.

A great deal has been made of the sexual content and nudity of the film. But it's no more than your average adult erotic thriller. And there's nothing really erotic about the sex. This is more Showtime-y than hardcore-y. Mostly, the sex scenes consist of sex. The most we ever see of Paul is him shirtless. We see a lot of Connie, but never for long, drawn out periods of time. So the sex and nudity have been overhyped for there's not really anything of not here.

One thing about "Unfaithful" is that is likes to Hammer home it's point (and yes, that's "hammer" with a capital H): cheating is bad, marriage is a sacred union, blah, blah, blah...next! We've heard ALL of this before, so when Lyne and his screenwriters think they are coming up with something fresh it's always something that has been said a million times before. And then there's the "If only I hadn't..." scene in which the film shows us Connie getting into a taxi instead of the smooth operator's bed. What a freakin' revelation?! Who's the genious who came up with THAT one? I never would have come to my own conclusion that events and circumstances would have been different for out characters if she had just gone home. But then, voila, you wouldn't have had a film, as flawed as it may be. The scene's inclusion in the film can only be to tell us what we should think because the film isn't told from Connie's point of view.

"Unfaithful" poses some good questions about fidelity: What would make this type of woman do something like this? But it offers no explanations. The film is a bit misogynistic in the way it portrays Connie as not caring about Paul and just using him for rad sex, but then they go and show a scene of her in an outrage in the middle of a bookstore when he's with another girl. (Good way to keep a low profile, hon.) But I suppose this can be viewed two ways: she has developed an emotional connection to her lover and is trying to convince herself that she hasn't, or that she is the same thing to him that he is to her, a play toy. Connie never explains the motives behind her affair (although I suppose it adds some mystery to the proceedings and the filmmakers only want to spell out to us what they want us to know...and know well), and if she would have slept with Paul and then gone and told her husband (instead of lying) than a lot of grief, guilt, anguish, and depression (not to mention a human life--yes, adulterer's have emotions too!) would have been saved.

What makes "Unfaithful" a pretty good movie, however is Diane Lane. Skip the nomination and give her the trophy. She makes Connie sympathetic but also infuriating. From start to finish, Lane is perfect. Just watch her alternate emotions on the train ride home from Encounter #1. Lane is masterful in this film, and this mastery of the artform spreads to Richard "I-haven't-been-good-since-"American Gigolo""Gere. Totally believeable throughout, except for the script's aforementioned character flaw. Olivier Martinez is the male Penelope Cruz. That's all I have to say about him.

While "Unfaithful" is an overlong affair, there are enough solid moments, great acting, and technical prowess to raise this above the likes of "Indecent Proposal" (another of Lyne's films).


--Brian Jones, June 2002