Rating- * * * * 4/5
This is a particularly daring film that may seem very scandalous but in fact goes a long way to promoting morals in a roundabout way. This technique of backing into morality has long been misunderstood by many of the more conservative moviegoers; they believe that showing an immoral act on the screen, even if the act is made to look bad and unglamorous, is as immoral as committing the act itself. This is clearly a misguided opinion, and Unfaithful is a good example of a film that proves that portraying immoral acts on the screen does not at all mean that the film condones them. The film stars Diane Lane as Connie, a woman who seems to be happily married to her businessman husband (Richard Gere) with a normal, happy child in a normal, happy suburban home. Then one day, for no apparent reason other than the opportunity, she decides to have an affair with a dreamy, French book dealer. We are never really given a reason for why Connie would risk her happy marriage for a silly fling; her husband isn’t mean, she doesn’t seem to be starved for sex, and she doesn’t seem to be a particularly immoral person. She just makes a bad decision, as could easily happen in real life. Her affair is mostly based on extremely rough sex with ____ in his apartment during the day (as well as in movie theaters, restaurant bathrooms, and just about everywhere else) and then going home and acting somewhat awkwardly around her husband. At first, ___ doesn’t suspect a thing, but when he starts to notice some of the strange behavior in Connie, he has her followed. When he discovers her affair, he decides to confront her lover and what happens next, which I won’t reveal, drives the plot for the rest of the film. On the surface, some of the content seems unbelievable and soap opera-esque, but the skill with which the actors, writers, and filmmakers carry out these actions make them seem very believable and very plausible. This film works better than most sex/thrillers because of one major reason; rather than try to explain the characters’ behavior, the film lets us simply observe it and draw our own conclusions. This aspect alone makes Unfaithful an infinitely smarter movie than it perhaps would have been in the hands of a lesser filmmaker than Adriane Lynne. The adulterous sex scenes are made not to look passionate and titillating, but rather kind of disturbing and forced. There are even times when Lane’s character seems sad about what she is doing, and yet she continues to do it anyway. The ending of the film may leave some viewers feeling a little dissatisfied because of its ambiguity, but this ending is entirely in synch with the rest of the film. As I mentioned before, one of the great things about this film is that it lets you think for yourself, and giving us an ending that makes us speculate what the characters will do rather than spelling it out for us is entirely consistent with the attitude displayed by the rest of the film. All in all, this is an interesting film with some pretty good acting and while it certainly is not be the feel-good romance of the year, it takes a very interesting look at what an affair can do to a marriage and to the lives of all those involved.