Unfaithful: Movie & DVD Review (2002)

(Originally published 2002)

"Unfaithful," the latest cautionary tale about marital infidelity from Adrian Lyne, is fascinating for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which is its white-hot trashiness, which liberates the film to become the guiltiest of pleasures--a pure, unadulterated melodrama about adultery--while also rendering large chunks of it an unintended comedy.

It’s never boring, though it is fair to say that a good deal of it is beautifully, unforgettably cheap in its own pretentious way. Imagine a General Foods International Coffee commercial whipped into a sexual frenzy that includes public sex, sadomasochism and some other notable acts of "indecency," and you have a good idea of what to expect in Lyne’s film.

Inspired by Claude Chabrol’s 1969 French film, "La Femme Infidele," "Unfaithful" remains true to the core of its predecessor’s European sensibility while also underscoring an American accountability. It tries to have it both ways, but since it can’t, it doesn’t.

The film stars Diane Lane as Connie Sumner, an upper-middle-class suburban New Jersey housewife who seemingly has it all—a great husband in Edward (Richard Gere), a great son in Charlie (Erik Per Sullivan), a sprawling house overlooking a lake, an active social life and the envy of her friends.

But on what must be the biggest windstorm to ever hit New York, Connie, who’s called "Con" by her husband, begins a whirlwind affair in SoHo after she’s literally blown into the arms of Paul Martel (Olivier Martinez), a swarthy, stubbly rare book dealer from Paris who quickly offers the 40ish Connie the one thing her life is missing—a rock-hard, 28-year-old body that can go all day and night.

Since the film is from Lyne, whose previous forays into the bedroom include "9 1/2 Weeks," "Indecent Proposal" and "Fatal Attraction," "Unfaithful" unleashes the passion between Connie and Peter with all the subltly of soft-core porn. They have sex in movie theaters, cramped restrooms, elevators, hallways, and even on top of one of Peter’s musty piles of books. Their affair is so steamy, it’s enough to make the "Emmanuel" crowd blush.

Lane, who’s been acting for 30 years, becomes so unhinged in "Unfaithful," you half expect her heart to give out midway through. There’s isn’t an emotion she doesn’t feel or express as if it will be her last.

She’s been the adulterous wife before in 1999’s "A Walk on the Moon," but here, her performance is more daring and provocative, the best part of a movie whose over-the-top first three-quarters are redeemed by a final act that turns deadly serious as Edward becomes wise to Connie’s affair—and Lyne brushes the silliness away with devastating moments that recall the more sensational aspects of "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and last year’s "In the Bedroom."

Grade: B-