A French Connection
Unfaithful
Review by Ross Anthony

Aptly titled, "Unfaithful" starts straight into a fanciful affair between Connie (Diane UnfaithfulLane) and Paul (Olivier Martinez) her French lover. Despite her loving husband (Gere) and solid suburban life, Connie risks disaster for afternoons of tantalizing youthful passion.

Let me admit my slant here, generally I don't enjoy watching make-believe people lie to each other during my night out. Hence, I seldom enjoy films about affairs. The high caliber acting, whimsical seduction and strong production value almost made this one an exception. UnfaithfulAt the midway point, the film had the opportunity to do something truly relevant - display the damage, the pain, the heart-shattering agony -- the unglamorous ultimate consequence. Regardless of my comfortable level with the subject matter, it is unfortunately a very real part of the human condition. If we haven't cheated ... we've likely at least considered it. Audiences will relate. But just at the moment the film begins to become interesting to me, it makes a choice to delve outside the average person's experience. At that point, I lost interest.

Besides strong acting, the film also showed off some wonderfully cute, complementary humor. But, there were also the uncharacteristically campy moments that gave this audience more than just a couple of hearty chuckles. Laughing at, not with.

Martinez says of his role, "The sex scenes were a challenge. But this is a movie, and things are faked, just like a fight scene in which nobody really gets beaten up or killed. And I'm not coming from the very deep, Stanislavsky method. It's true that this was my first time doing these explicit love scenes - and it's not my favorite thing to do, because I'm quite shy! I needed to forget myself, so I could maintain the character. Adrian and Diane were very relaxed about it; I was the one who was uptight!"

Unfaithful



  • Unfaithful. Copyright © 2002. Rated R.
  • Starring Diane Lane, Erick Per Sullivan, Richard Gere, Olivier Martinez. Directed by Adrian Lyne.
  • Screenplay by Alvin Sargent & William Broyles, Jr.
  • Based upon the film "La Femme Infidele" by Claude Chabrol.
  • Produced by Adrian Lyne and G.Mac Brown at Fox2000/Regency.



Grade..........................B-



Copyright © 2001. Ross Anthony, currently based in Los Angeles, has scripted and shot documentaries, music videos, and shorts in 35 countries across North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. For more reviews visit: RossAnthony.com


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Last Modified: Saturday, 16-Sep-2006 07:43:48 PDT