Marie's Review
I'm a big Richard Gere fan. And he doesn't dissappoint me in this movie. It's a good drama with a surprise. It's worth seeing and I enjoyed it very much- one of Richard's finer moments.

YOU FEEL WHAT SHE'S FEELING, THE LOVE, THE PAIN
THIS IS A MOVIE YOU NEVER GET TIRED OF , EACH TIME YOU SEE IT, YOU FEEL HER INFATUATION, AND LOVE FOR TWO MEN, HER LOVER AND HER HUSBAND. SHE FINDS OUT HER HUSBAND KNOWS, AND THEN THAT HE MUST HAVE BEEN THE ONE WHO KILLED HER LOVER. SHE GRIEVES FOR BOTH. THE ENDING LEAVES YOU HANGING AS TO WHAT THE OUTCOME IS, BUT AT THE SAME TIME YOU KNOW WHAT THEY HAVE TO DO TO MAKE IT RIGHT. IT'S GREAT ACTING BY BOTH DIANE AND RICHERD GERE.
i DON'T USUALLY BUY MOVIES BUT i'M BUYING THIS ONE.

[4.5] It always ends in disaster
I really enjoy this film, even after multiple vewings it is still effective. The key is great performances with attention to detail, especially from Diane Lane. The story too, is well written, also bringing out attention to details and the affair is just half of the tale, as an unexpected event turns things around half-way through the film, releasing a lot of tension, suspision, and unfaithfulness.

One might expect that Unfaithful is about a wife cheating on her husband (been done before and the cover art of the case gives this away). This is only half of the film, which makes it a fine product altogether. However, the first half of the film is well accomplished. We are introduced to the Sumner family, husband Ed (Richard Gere), wife Connie (Diane Lane) and young son of about 8 years of age, Charlie (Erik Per Sullivan). They live quitely, comfortably in the suburbs in a beautiful white house, picket fence etc etc. Everything is fine and for the most part the family is happy. Ed works a lot like most husbands, and one might believe too much work can lead to his wife's affair. Not so true. He does a fine job of balancing work and family, spending a lot of time with his boy and equally with his wife, in a variety of tender & romantic encounters. Connie seems happy but accidently bumps into Paul Martel (Olivier Martinez) on the street one day. He invites her to his place for a minute, she stays briefly. Slowly and cautiously, Connie revisits, fighting with herself whether to conintue the visits or let it be. She visits one too many times, eventually finding herself romantically involved and addicted soonafter. Yet at the same time, she still spends time with her family, and having fun. Eventually she begins to break down, realizing she doesn't need this and realizing her husband has always been good to her. But they always end in disaster, one of her friends states, about affairs.

Connie gets the soptlight in the film, especially in the first half, along with Paul (though there is little exploration to his character, but the story focus is ment to be on Connie). Ed gets his chance in the second half of the film, when he encounters Paul and an unexpected turn of events occur, haunting him (Ed) for the rest of the film. It is at this point when the title "Unfaithful" is at it's ripest form. Suspense is finally at its climax, as suspicions begin to rise both from husband and wife.

Unfaithful could have been a suspense thriller, but it is not. While there are some moments of anger, and a bit of hatred, Unfaithful actually has a very romantic and touching quality to it. This is very evident in the soundtrack, which is light piano accompanied by a bit of strings throughout most of the film. The ending scene wasn't very sharp, but the end of the film up to that point actually surpirsed me, in a good way. I enjoyed seeing acts of love and forgiveness at work. While Unfaithful contains a lot of sexuality, it is not that kind of film. There is a rather deeper meaning at play here, performances and story are strong enough, that it might just make you think twice about cheating, and maybe recognize the better parts of a beautiful marriage.

Acting - 4.5
Charcaters - 4
Drama - 4.5
Story - 4
Overall - 4.5

My allegiance is slightly unfaithful...
My defiant support of this film was probably spawned from the atrocity that was Diane Lane's Oscar loss back at the 2002 Academy Awards. Yes, Nicole Kidman is a great actress who delivered a decent portrayal of Virginia Woolf, but honestly, there was not one performance in any category that year that rivaled that of Diane Lane. Over the years though I have been able to separate my love for her performance from my feelings towards the film, and what I've found is that this movie as a whole misses the mark and is really only bolstered by the power within Lane's dynamic performance.

The film is quite generic; married woman meets intriguing stranger who entices her into a lurid affair that threatens the fibers of her marriage. We've seen this many times before (even within the same year we were given `The Good Girl', which as a whole was a better film yet lacked the brilliance that was Lane) but what disappointed me most about `Unfaithful' is that it didn't really execute the film all that great. Aside from Lane there really isn't anything extraordinary here, not in the acting and not in the script. I'll give the direction some love since it really grabs you in moments and pains this secluded picture of claustrophobia, which helps elevate the audience's grasp of the emotional state Constance is going through. The film is nicely shot, but it lacks any real substance to help elevate it above the average infidelity thriller.

The script is probably the biggest culprit here, giving the audience nothing to be too excited about. The plot twist involving the `murder' is really a stretch and in my opinion drags the movie down that clichéd road of no return. Oliver Martinez doesn't help the film much either. He's a rather dull actor who comes off somewhat silly in most of his scenes. Richard Gere (another actor I've never truly `gotten') does his best to rise above his characters setbacks, but he eventually falls victim.

Yes, Diane Lane is really the only member of the acting team who walks away unscathed, which is really another testament to her tremendous performance, for even when she is faced with rather mediocre dialog she owns it in a way that sells it as legit to the audience.

The film does soar in some areas though, which is really why I'm rather torn when I discuss this movie. Yes, it winds up feeling stale when you take in the entire gist of the film, plot holes and all; but when you separate the segments that feature Lane and her characters gradual breakdown you can't help but see where this film makes sense. The film really fleshes out Constance in a way that a lot of these genre films aren't able to (yet another testament to Lane's brilliance). We can see the entire workings of this affair in her head and it draws us to her. We see her struggle with her motherly duties and we see the way this affair makes her feel free. This film soars in the area where `Notes on a Scandal' failed (in fleshing out the unfaithful party) yet fails in area where `Notes on a Scandal' soared (in delivering a highly engrossing film). When we see Constance attack Paul in the library after catching him with another woman we feel her pain, yet we are not immune to her lack of morality. We know she is wrong yet with sympathize with her, not out of lackadaisical morals but out of desperate understanding.

Connie is a real woman to us.

So, the film itself would get a C from me, maybe even a C-, but Diane Lane alone deserves an A+ (I remember watching the film with my wife and during the first love scene my wife turned to me and said "is she quivering" and it was right there that I said "this girl deserves like twenty Oscars for this") and her iconic performance is not only the greatest `cheating spouse' portrayal like ever, it elevates the overall appeal of this film drastically. Like I said, I defiantly supported this mediocrity based on her stunning performance alone for so long. Sure, I no longer campaign the film, but I will never stop campaigning her performance.

not too believable and the ending... ack!
First off, I really didn't like Richard Gere in the droopy role of the poor schmuck married to a woman with zero emotional predictability; he was pretty lame. No cavalier sparkle in his eyes, no look of intellectual sharpness, no decent dialogue, no game; just Gere as Captain Baggy Pants who ends up going to his kid's play with a dead body in the trunk of his car in the school parking lot and later hides a man's body under two bags of garbage.

There were a lot of sweaters in this movie. I guess we were supposed to get the sweater as the message to beware of a too-comfortable life or maybe knitted angst... I don't know,maybe the sale on sweaters was left on the editing floor. Just when you got your sweater quotient overloaded, Dinna Lane character gives the Richard Gere character a sweater for a gift... and that doesn't begin to turn off the knitting machine. Ugh! I guess wardrobe played a big role in this movie.

Well, if the Diane Lane character (Connie) was true to life then this would have to be every man's worst nightmare for a wife. Affluent, bubbling over with happiness in the home, indulged by her high earning husband to work for charities when she feels like it, but then.... a chance encounter with some guy turns her into a wild cheating wife... with a vengence. No restraint, no qualms until the deal is almost over. And here is the pithy wardrobe part. She didn't wear sweaters to meet the guy. Nope. New bras and black dresses... hmmm. Beware of the sweater!!! Deep.

In that respect, I would sincerely hope that this character is not believable. Now, maybe if some discontent was built into the Connie character prior to the wild affair, but gosh... really?

For me, it dragged awful, especially the last half hour where the actor's faces were emoting all over the screen... little said, just pained expressions of grief-remorse-guilt-pain-love-forgiveness-more grief-more guilt-conflicted... Yah.

And the ending... what was that all about? I wondered if I missed something but I was hugely reluctant to watch the last 15 minutes of them emoting their guts all over again. I'm pretty sure I got it, but I guess this would be the artistic non-ending... kid asleep in the backseat of the car, them discussing and then discarding the idea of fleeing to Mexico... at a stoplight which keeps changing red and green... IN FRONT OF THE COP SHOP!!! Ya know, at that point my disgust at the waffling end was so great I was hoping someone would slap the cuffs on the both of them... I'm quite sure their faces would emote more grief-guilt-pain-love-conflict...

Gave it three stars because it's probably an average movie.