Unfaithful (Full Screen Edition)

Unfaithful (Full Screen Edition) Review

Unfaithful is a film that stirs your senses, from the initial temptation to the bittersweet ending.

There are many films dealing with a man's infidelity to his wife (Lyn's Fatal Attraction, for one), but this movie takes the other perspective. It tells the story of a seemingly happily married woman's affair with a handsome stranger, and how such a chance encounter can turn everyone's life upside down.

There's a lot to intrigue the viewer in this movie--from the way the clandestine affair is revealed to the sordid aftermath.

Diane Lane is amazing as always, and Richard Gere's performance will floor you. If you don't feel his character's pain, especially in the pivotal scene, you must not have a pulse.

What's also amazing about this movie (kudos to director Lyne) is how fleshed-out the characters are. Whereas in many films of this genre the viewer knows just whom to blame, whom to call the villain, whom to call the victim, this one, on the other hand, portrays each character with depth and empathy, blurring the lines between good and evil, accident and purposefulness, right and wrong.

This film is also beautifully filmed--a lot of sepia tones (maybe a statement as to the haziness of good and bad as portrayed in the film)--and the music by Jan A.P. Kaczmarek is haunting and lovely at the same time. Perfect is what it is.

A definite 5-star film.

Unfaithful (Full Screen Edition) Overview

From the director of Fatal Attraction comes "a steamy thriller" (People Magazine) about physical passion so intense, it consumes everything - and everyone - in its path. Edward and Connie Summer (Richard Gere, Diane Lane) have the perfect life: a happy marriage, an eight year old son, and a beautiful house in the suburbs. But when Connie's chance encounter with a handsome stranger (Olivier Martinez) erupts into a full-blown affair, desire becomes obsession, and the true price of betrayal takes a shattering toll. Pulsing with heart-pounding suspense and erotic thrills, Unfaithful is "sexy", stylish and seductive!" (Wireless Magazine)

Unfaithful (Full Screen Edition) Specifications

If you ever need dramatic proof that adultery is inevitably destructive, look no further than Adrian Lyne's Unfaithful. Drawing inspiration from Claude Chabrol's 1969 film La Femme Infidèle, the director of Fatal Attraction is mining similar territory here, but this grownup thriller is more intimate than Lyne's dead-bunny potboiler, probing more deeply into the rush of conflicting emotions provoked by infidelity. In what many critics praised as the role of her career, Diane Lane plays the instigator of emotional turmoil, a seemingly happy housewife and fundraiser who cheats on her devoted husband (Richard Gere, in a welcomed change of pace) when she casually encounters a seductive Frenchman (cliché alert!) played by Olivier Martinez. Allowing his actors to speak volumes without words, Lyne emphasizes silent tension over explicit thrills, creating a sexually charged thriller that remains riveting even as it turns partially predictable. "Someone always gets hurt," says one character in a pivotal scene, and Unfaithful fulfills that prophesy in a timeless tale of passion. --Jeff Shannon