Unfaithful Doesn't Cheat Its Audience

What is this world coming to when even Richard Gere is cheated on?! I mean, wow! If the officer and the gentleman
ain't safe from marital betrayal, no one is.

Probably the scariest thing about Unfaithful is that the couple that is torn asunder in the film appears to have the perfect life. I'll even go so far as to say they do have the perfect life, at least on the surface. A nice suburban home, money, good looks, health, a cute son. As a plus, they are still attracted to one another after years of marriage. They still have chemistry. Gere doesn't play the stereotypical cold-fish husband obsessed only with his work. Diane Lane is not the horny housewife, constantly neglected by an aloof spouse, that we've seen in so many lesser TV movies. Some may question why exactly Lane's Connie Sumner cheats to begin with. But sometimes there is no why. Sometimes human beings are just weak. Sometimes good people do really bad things.

Directed by Adrian Lyne, the film is kind of a reverse of his groundbreaking Fatal Attraction from 1987. Here, the cheater is not the husband with the great wife, child, and home. It's the wife. Whereas Michael Douglas in that earlier film just wanted a quick, weekend of irresponsible sex with a colleague--a fling that no one would know about and no one would be hurt by--Lane simply succumbs to physical desire.

The object of her lust is Paul, a French bibliophile who she bumps into in New York's Soho district. As played by Oliver Martinez, Paul is right out of a grocery-store romance novel. Flowing hair, washboard stomach, and that accent. When he says things to her like, "Oh, mon cheri. Soup du juor. Escargot." It ain't long before the panties are hanging from the lampshade, folks.

OK, I'm kidding. Frenchie's big seduction lines include such gems as: "Your eyes are beautiful. You should never close them." and "There are no decisions. There is either what you will do and what you won't do." Laughable? You bet! Even I was like, "Shut up, and take off your pants!" I mean, sheesh! If I were to say garbage like that, I would only have several minutes of uncontrollable, open-mouthed laughter to look forward to followed by the inevitable "Get
out of my air space, creep!" reply. Martinez says that junk, and it works! He gets great, genital bumper-car action in his book-filled loft (and later in various public places).

Fortunately, Unfaithful is a movie that makes us believe in the intense attraction of Connie and Paul, despite the dialogue and Paul's somewhat creepy demeanor. But it's Lane and Gere who really sold this movie for me. Lane played a similar cheating wife in A Walk on the Moon (a better film, to be sure), and she's careful not to repeat some of the same rhythms here. There is a scene on a train where Connie is remembering the hot monkey sex she previously shared with Paul that is just erotic as all Hell. The way Lane's face changes, dances, and flexes her desire, her satisfaction, her shame, and her longing is one of the great bits of film acting I've seen this year. Lane takes serious risks in this picture. Most daring of all, she risks losing the audience almost immediately in embarking on an affair seemingly with no other reason that to satisfy her own carnal curiosity. Lane's innate likability keeps us tuned in to her emotions, making the film more than just a soft-core peep show.

Gere, meanwhile, hasn't been this good in a film since Internal Affairs 12 years ago. He gets two great scenes where he just flips out that had me engrossed. Gere's Edward Sumner is established early on as a businessman who appreciates loyalty above all other traits in an employee. Since Connie does a piss-poor job of covering her tracks with her French-Latino lover, he puts a private detective on her tail and soon learns the truth. I won't ruin the other twists in the film where he and they are concerned. I will say that for those who didn't like the slasher ending of Fatal Attraction, this film plays out much differently and ends up in a much bleaker place.

That's not to say this is a better film. It's really not. Lyne still puts a little too much flash in his movies for my tastes. His New York always looks like something out of a bad perfume commercial. The film is thematically similar to last year's In the Bedroom. But stylistically, it's more Obsession by Calvin Klein.

Lyne and cinematographer Peter Biziou, though, do deliver some memorably intense imagery. The windstorm that sweeps Connie up and deposits her at the feet of her new lover to begin the film seems like fate reaching out and cruelly pushing its target towards her ultimate temptation. The wind is such a force in that moment, you half-expect Miss Gulch or two rednecks in a rowboat to zip by Lane as she begins her out-of-control spiral.

In the end, Unfaithful is about decisions and it's about consequences. It's also about needs fulfilled and unfulfilled. Watching it, I felt both titillated and depressed often at the same time. Why? Because what passes for erotica in mainstream movies today more frequently has to do with adultery and empty passion between virtual strangers than showing two people in a committed, long-term relationship--whether it be marriage or otherwise--where their sex is still exciting and fulfilling. The latter is rarely the subject of a film, and that's a shame. Unfaithful is a good film. But I've seen this kind of thing before in Body Heat, Fatal Attraction, Damage, and A Walk on the Moon. Been there, done that. Now I challenge Lyne or some other filmmaker to go make a movie that's just as sexy, just as emotional ... and call it Faithful.

Unfaithful is rated R for sexuality, language, and a scene of violence.