Reviews: Unfaithful

[JoBlo]

JoBlo's 7/10 review of UNFAITHFUL can be found here: http://www.joblo.com/unfaithful.htm

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[Kerry George]

I totally agree with your review, but I thought it was even better. Atmospheric, subtle and extremely well acted - this was a great thriller. Diane Lane's performance is one of the most impressive I've ever seen, and that is really saying something.

Great film made even greater by great acting.

[The Arrow]

I saw Unfaithful this morning and loved it. For those of you expecting a thriller or a Fatal Attraction Part 2 type of flick, you're wrong. The film is a gripping character study. It's bathed in symbolism and tackles the subject of adultary in a restrained and honest manner. Diane Lane carries the movie and impressed the shite out of me, Richard Gere plays against type (finally!) and reminds us that yes he knows how to act and director Adrian Lyne paints a grim yet beautiful picture. This flick is far from mainstream and I don't expect it to rake in the dough but if you're in the mood for a more adult and thought provoking type of picture, this one's for you. 8/10

[movybuff]

I consider this one of the best films I've seen this year, right along next to "Changing Lanes" and "Frailty." Diane Lane gives the best perfomance (male or female) I've seen this year and, hopefully, she will finally reach the stardom she deserves after years of playing the sidelines.

I've always liked Richard Gere and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because he's so damn charming. Anyway, I feel this is one of his very best perfomances and he dominated the second half of the film like a seasoned pro.

Even though I was anxious to see it, I was afraid it would turn out to be something like Fatal Attraction. Fortunately, it wasn't.

"Unfaithful" is an intelligent and erotic drama that brings out the best in the actors, the captivating (though, not completely original) story, intriguing twists and turns and appropriately ambiguous ending.

I was humbly satisfied with Adrian Lyne.

9/10

[dh1989]

SPOILERS

I am going to go against what schmoes have said so far and say that this movie is one of the worst of the year. I don't think character study is an excuse for a movie just being plain slow and stupid. The performances are all good(except for that brat kid). Diane Lane did good, but was better in THE PERFECT STORM. Richard Gere is on a roll. Two slow paced movies in the first half of 2002(at least MOTHMAN had some scary moments). Olivier Martinez was great. he really layed on the charm and he was the one character I actually liked(why was Connie so suprised when he was with another girl. He likes married woman because they are dangerous. I did not hear him ask her to leave her husband and run away with him). The film is so badly colored it makes it even more tedious. There is nothing visually good about this movie. This director, I believe his name is Adrian Lyne, is a no talent hack. This movie is a bad remake of a good thriller called FATAL ATTRACTION(Lyne's only film based on good and worthy material). The ending of this film was horrid! They blab on about going to Mexico and fishing all day(like that'll ever happen) and don't even tell you the outcome.


Rating: 2/10 BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


P.S. Gere's character would be so busted. he left fingerprints and fibers everywhere. And Luminol could tell them there was a big puddle of plasma was there.

[Puck Bond]

Unfaithful 8/10...

Unfaithful is a highly adult and erotic dramatic thriller that is superbly acted and not just a conventional formulaic thriller. Diane Lane is superb(and sexy as hell) as a wife of a happily married couple...who just falls into the obsessive world of infidelity and has an affair with a young frenchman who is a book dealer. Richard Gere and Olivier Martinez are also very good in this...as the choices and decisions of Lane's character affect these three people in very deep and profound way. Most of all I liked how this film doesn't deteriorate into a formulaic thriller into the end...these are problems left unsolved and these people are still changing especially the married couple's relationship. So overall Unfaithful is a sexually charged adult drama with fine performances all around but especially Diane Lane in a star making role.

[AJackson85]

I saw Unfaithful last night and can't decide exactly what I think about it.

I thought the story was intriguing, deep and insightful and I loved the symbolism throughout. However, I thought its length was a bit of a drawback, especially toward the end.

*spoiler warning*

The ending was the major factor that left me wondering whether I liked it or not. I liked the final stop light symbolism, especially with the police station there, yet I yearned for more of a resolution. The whole time I'd been expecting some violent major final event, but it never really happened. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Either way, it left a lot to think about.

I agree Richard Gere and Diane Lane in particular were excellent and the actor who played the Frenchman had the foreign charming persona down pat. Though I feel bad dissing children, I have to say I couldn't stand the kid who played the son. He was really annoying.

Overall, I thought the film was worth seeing with its good points outscoring the bad and if you are in the mood for a mature, passionate, intriguing movie, I would give my recommendation to Unfaithful.

Final Rating: 7 out of 10.

[Snowboy]

Wow. I love seeing movies that surprise me.
When I saw this trailer, it didn't look to enticing. Same old crap as seen a billion times on TV. BUT..that was not to be. The story itself was definitely an intriguing one with a powerful message: Even good people can make the wrong decisions sometimes, and those decisions can often have explosive results. The performances, wow, Diane Lane, give her an Oscar for crying out loud!! She went ALL out for this role (literally), and she did manage to convey many different realistic emotions that one would feel after having made such a choice. And Richard Gere was another thumbs up..you could see the pain and anguish he felt when he figured out what was going on.
The opening scene, with all the wind blowing and her falling on the guy's body, seemed kind of a stretch, but in the end, I bought it. All in all a great solid thriller, with very strong performances and a great story.
8/10

[DaMovieMan]

*** INCLUDES SPOILERS ***

I saw the movie in question this afternoon by accident actually. My initial reason for visiting the cinema was to see Ice Age but since it was only in Greek i went from funny cartoon to exotic drama. Quite a change huh?
Anyway,
I advantages balance out frmo the disadvantages for me. My new love is Dianne Lane. She was sexy as hell and her performance was exquisit. If it wasnt for her i dont think i would like this movie half as much. Richard Gere was also very good and so was Olivier Martinez. The latter was one cool dude and his murder came as a total surprise.
I dig movies with symbolism and this one had a lot. I love the last scene where we actually see that they didnt go to Mexico coz they didnt move when the light was on green and since the POLICE station was around we can believe that Gere went to jail for what he did.
THe kid was actually really good coz he portrayed the perfect son and thus making things ten times harder for Connie. He was the kid who adored his parents and thought everything was peachy perfect and he went about his role really well. Such a basic story yet so intrguing. What gives? I say the acting and directing is the major bonuses of this film. Symbolism and Choreagrophy come right after.

8/10

DaMan


[This message has been edited by JoBlo (edited 06-11-2002).]

[scottish-movie-freak]

This is such a fantastic movie! Diane Lane is an under-rated actress and this role is oscar worthy material which she deserves! Richard Gere puts in an unbeleivable performance! He has the emotional depth of a puddle of mud!
Those expecting an excellent movie on par with the fantastic Lolita or Fatal Attraction may be disappointed but this movie stands alone!

[mentobe]

I just finished watching "Unfaithful." Wow. What a great movie...I wasn't sure what to expect when I first started it, all I had heard about it was that it was a very adult-oriented movie, containing many graphic scenes of sex, and I could not picture Richard Gere in this type of a movie...he is an outstanding actor, but I wasn't sure how he would excel in this movie, so I was a bit skeptical...but I was very suprised in the end. This movie made me thing of many things, such as what I would do in the situation of all of the characters, it put me in their shoes. Hats off to the three main characters, especially Gere and Diane. Although, I would not reccomend this movie to just anyone...its quite depressing, actually...it's not a movie that you can just be half-assed interested in and expect to get the movie's full impact.


8/10

[The1TrueFrog]

Unfaithful - 5/10.

http://us.ent4.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/twentieth_century_fox/unfaithful/_group_photos/diane_lane5.jpg

Maybe I'm at the point where I've seen so many movies that it takes a lot to thrill me. This movie just seems like a rehash of many many movies about the same thing. For someone who prolly considers the act of cheating on your spouse, especially by a woman, as the lowest act of all.. alongside vultures, liars, thieves and killers.. I didn't much care for it.

I did enjoy the last quarter after it develops into more of a cover-up of murder and affairs.. so I guess I would consider it a 50/50 movie. Not really a must-see though.

[Bub]

UNFAITHFUL

http://www.sf-film.dk/fox/images/unfaithful_2.jpg

SYNOPSIS
Connie (Diane Lane) and Edward (Richard Gere) live along the Hudson River, within commuting distance from New York City. He toils away at his Manhattan office every day, while she cares for their nine-year-old son, Charlie (Erik Sullivan), and spends her afternoons helping out with a charity auction.

One day, when Connie's auction work brings her into the city, she is literally thrown against a complete stranger by stormy winds on the streets of SoHo. The man, a cute and much younger Frenchman named Paul Martel (Olivier Martinez), invites the bruised and disheveled Connie up to his loft for a bandage. They converse about his book-trading endeavors and share tea, but nothing happens — nothing physical, anyway. Connie feels drawn to him, though, and after two more visits, the pair begin the kind of in-movies-only affair where people employ Braille-reading as foreplay and have sex in public bathrooms, theaters, and in hallways.

Connie starts acting different in front of her husband, not wanting to shag in the bath for instence, and he becomes suspicious of her. Soon enough, he finds out about her having an affair and trouble ensues.

REVIEW
I've never seen "Fatal Attraction", so I can't compare this to Director Adrian Lyne's earlier work. However, i was surprised at how much I was liking it half an hour into the film. It plays out like a typical rom/com, but it goes deeper and has more dramatic and erotic elements. The shagging scenes in the film were fantastic, very raunchy. There's a scene where Connie wants to leave Paul but they end up having a daring shagging session outside his apartment door and she cries out "I want you to f**k me!". The affair is also quite unsettling. Connie has mixed feelings about her romps with Paul and she clearly becomes upset. There's an amazing scene with Connie going home in a train and having flashbacks of her rape fantasy with Paul, which may offend some. Lane's expressions and the emotional impact in that scene is excellent. She cannot decide to laugh or cry, so she does both!

The film did fall slightly flat in the third have when Edward goes to Paul's apartment and gets himself into an akward situation. From that scene on, it seems to focus more on him rather than on Connie which wasn't really the right way to turn. I enjoyed seeing Connie go through hell and emotional situations rather than seeing her troubled husband. Some things should have been changed and a more unhappy ending should have been used.

Diane Lane was perfect for the role. She brilliantly constructs her sequences whilst breaking down and showing her emotional side. As Lane steps further into the affair, she becomes careless, like oversleeping at Paul's apartment and picking her son up from school late. You can see by looking at her face that not only is she putting her motherhood at stake, but her marrige aswell. Richard Gere plays the husband of Lane who seems far too relaxed about the affair for the audience to really care about him. The film doesn't dive into the depth of his personality enough. Olivier Martinez (Paul) has the same problem. he's just the pretty French boy who likes to shag Lane and it's hard to really develop any care for him. Maybe I'm being too harsh, they weren't so bad, it's just that Lane's peformance is so powerful that you don't want to care for anyone else.

I would like to comment on several scenes where the boom mic's were obviously showing which pissed me off. Apart from a couple of flaws, it's an enjoyable film which sadly loses its touch in the third half.

7/10

[MooveeManiac]

I have to disagree with any good review of this movie. Let me start by saying I LOVE movies and rarely do I detest a movie, but this one was bad. While I do agree that the acting was fine,(notably Diane Lane) I can't get over the weak, thrown together storyline where the simple truth is that Constance Sumner is nothing but dirty and irresponsible white trash. The windstorm where she meets Paul was over the top and felt more like a forced situation where you knew what was going to happen. But it just wasn't believable. Granted Paul is handsome and sexy etc. but so is her husband Edward (gere)!!! And on top of it he loves his wife to death and is a good man, they have a lovely son etc. etc. Lyne could have at least given Constance SOME sort of reason to betray her husband...but nope. Cue the gratuitous sex scenes (hey i'm not complaining about the sex ok...) This character Connie is weak and annoying and this movie should have been made 20 years ago if at all. Nothin' new, nothin fun just pessimism and indulgence with no lessons to be learned. On top of that, the scene in which Edward kills Paul was laughably bad! One of the most unbelievable killings I have ever scene staged in a movie. Two bonks over the noggin' with a fricken' snow globe!!!?? You have got to be kidding me...the killing scene was symbolic of this poor, messageless excuse for a movie: WEAK in caps.

[Mad Maggot]

Unfaithful (2002)
<B>Director</b>: Adrian Lyne
<B>Screenwriter</b>: Alvyn Sargent,
William Broyles
<B>Cast</b>: Diane Lane
<Richard Gere
Olivier Martinez
<B>Release date</B>: May 8 2002 (LA/NY); May 10, 2002 (wide).
<b> Nominations for Academy Awards</b>: None yet

It isn't shocking, it isn't frightening, it isn't deafening, and it isn't perfect. But it's Adrian Lyne. Adrian Lyne, the one who gave the world Nine and a Half Weeks, Fatal Attraction, Lolita and Jacob's Ladder. The one who was the first to show us close relationships of woman and men. Unfaithful isn't an exception. Adrian Lyne never crosses his own line, his personal movie line. He always sticks to his own point, that's what he did in Unfaithful as well.
A woman is in love, she's married to a good man and they have an 8-year old kid. But once things happen so that in the street she meets a Frenchman who lives in New York and makes his living by buying and then reselling books. She meets him once, twice and it devours her. Her husband first suspects something and then hires a detective to find everything out… The end can be predictable, but you still don't know for sure if it is what you think it is.
Adrian Lyne usually films good actors and actresses in his movies, you can never complain on the cast. Nine and A Half Weeks - Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke, Fatal Attraction - Michael Douglas and Glenn Close, Lolita - Dominique Swaine, Jeremy Irons and Melanie Griffith. And in Unfaithful main roles belong to Diane Lane, Richard Gere and Olivier Martinez, they bring movie to life with such a passion; passion which can't be considered as overacting, no way, it must be considered as a wonderful play of every actor, they all do their own valuable contributions to this movie.
Diane Lane creates her own world in the movie, her own atmosphere. Everyone seems like arranging with what she does. It's definitely not best Richard Gere's performance, though he seems like forever someone's husband in the movies. Olivier Martinez shows us his wonderful acting, he's being a sweet, charming and adorable, not because he wants to be such a person, but because his role tells him to be. That's the picture everyone will tell later about 'And remember he played in Unfaithful, it was one of his first roles? He did an amazing job.'
You can identify Adrian Lyne's movie by its wonderful music. Just remember the main theme from Flashdance, You Can Leave Your Hat On, The Best Is Yet To Come from Nine and A Half Weeks, Ennio Morricone's melodies from Lolita. Jan Ap. Kaczmarek did music for this movie and it really helps you to feel the movie and to get into it.
This erotic thriller amazes you and gives you goosebumps. It's definitely worth seeing it and enjoying it.

9/10

[zsofika]

about this film unfaithful as i don't put a leash on a man..be it
marriage..or committment...it showed that wild instinctual hunger..
which should be there...most of the time..or what's the point...
have had all these emotional states....don't need to be reminded..
loved the backdrops...ya...well..so..wonderful light work...
timing...music.....conclusion; love is not ownership of passions..
where was that written...showed me...we all must be a bit..
sneakyer...gettin...what you want...gettin what you need...
amen...didn't find the actually actors and actresses erotic
enough...to pull me in...maybe if pacino played the lead...
with...c+ for honest attempt