Written by Claude Chabrol, Alvin Sargent, and William Broyles Jr.
Directed by Adrian Lyne

What makes a marriage fall apart? For many people, there’s no definitive answer – no moment when things change from all good to all bad. One day, it just seems like something is missing; that certain spark that used to be there. Perhaps things have become too routine and taken for granted.

In the thriller Unfaithful, Diane Lane is Connie, a suburban wife and mother. Her life is comfortable, and maybe a bit too much so. She and her husband, Edward (portrayed by Richard Gere) get along fine, but there’s something missing from their marriage.

One day in the city, Connie literally runs into a handsome young bookseller, Paul (portrayed by Olivier Martinez). She goes to his place to just clean up herself and her injuries before returning home.  Once there, she settles back into her life, but she can’t get Paul out of her mind. She soon finds herself back at his place as the two embark on a steamy affair.

Edward begins to get suspicious. He hires a private detective to follow Connie. Connie has become careless over the affair, confident that she and Paul can lose each other in the anonymity the city offers them. Even when she is nearly caught several times, she doesn’t stay away despite her vows to. The sexual attraction she feels for Paul is too consuming, and will eventually lead to a disaster.

What makes Unfaithful work (when it does) pure and simple is Diane Lane. She is incredible here as a suburban housewife whose life has become a bit too ordinary. She’s at a stage in her life where the hint of an adventure lights a spark, as does the attention of a younger and very attractive man. Although the sex is great, that’s not the only thing that keeps her coming back for more with Paul. There’s an excitement to having a secret and Lane manages to convey both aspects of what motivates her to explore this part of her personality.

That’s not to say Connie doesn’t have some guilt. She lies to Edward and doesn’t like it, but is unwilling to give up the adventure of having a younger lover. Even as she’s sacrificing bits and moments from her life with her family, all she can think about is Paul. At the same time, there are hints coming that she will have to make a decision and she’s not willing to sacrifice her son and all that she’s become comfortable with for the adventure. However, actually ending it once and for all is another issue.

Which brings about the thriller part of the film. I won’t reveal it because it wasn’t quite what I expected. I wasn’t impressed with it either, however. What takes place is truly a tragedy and not completely unexpected, but it left me feeling empty in the end. No matter what happened at the end, I’m not sure justice was going to be served.

Gere is terrific as the cuckolded husband who’s doing everything he was supposed to in life. He owns his own business and is providing well for his family. He’s a dutiful father as well, yet he has employees who take advantage of him and a wife who is unfaithful. He’s completely unaware of that side of his world until it pretty much comes crashing down on him. It’s a different role for Gere. A few years ago he was portraying the young lover and now here he is on the other side of the scandal.

There are many love scenes in the movie between Connie and Paul. For that reason, it’s rated R, and deservedly so. I wasn’t too surprised to learn the Director of Unfaithful also directed Fatal Attraction. They are very similar in they are about spouses who have affairs that are difficult to sever once the decision is made to end it. However, Unfaithful has a different tact with it being the wife as the cheater. Still, both main characters seem to embark on their affairs for no other reason that they have the opportunity to. Neither of them are particularly unhappy in their home life when they stray, they just seem to do it for the same reason people climb mountains: because they can.

Unfaithful works or doesn’t work depending on the characters and I don’t know that anyone other than Lane would have been as convincing in the role. Watching her on the train ride back after the first sexual encounter between the two is one of the most compelling and yet in many ways disturbing scenes. For in short order the connection has been made with her young lover and at that point it’s made clear that it’s all about sex. Watching Lane pull this off is mercerizing and I give her tons of credit. She’s perhaps one of the most underrated actresses in Hollywood. She lost the best Actress Oscar that year to Nicole Kidman, and sorry to Kidman fans out there but I think that was a great miscarriage.

The ending is somewhat ambiguous and unsatisfying. On the DVD there is an alternate ending, and if that was how it was meant to end I also felt unsatisfied. Justice doesn’t seem to be coming where it’s deserved and I ended up feeling bad for the entire family that was going to be fractured apart over Connie’s choices. I really felt that much of what made this a thriller could have been jettisoned and just left this as a film about the breakdown of the trust in a marriage for what seems like no reason at all, but then I wasn’t asked to make the film. For that reason it’s only three stars, but I do highly recommend it.  The parts that are good are that good.


SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Commentary by Director Adrian Lyne
• Deleted Scenes, available with an Introduction and Commentary by Adrian Lyne
• An Affair to Remember: On The Set of Unfaithful
• Anne Coates on Editing
• Charlie Rose Interview (radio)
• A Conversation with: Richard Gere, Diane Lane, Oliver Martinez
• Director’s Script Notes
• Theatrical Trailer