UNFAITHFUL

a film by Adrian Lyne released through Twentieth Century-Fox in 2002

A re-make of the 1969 Claude Chabrol film La Femme Infidele (and, it would seem, inspired by Presumed Innocent [1990]), Unfaithful lures its audience with the promise of illicit sex, then mercilessly chronicles the grave consequences of adultery.

Diane Lane deserves the universal praise that has greeted her performance.  But Richard Gere stretches himself.  With a quiet reserve finally fractured by rage and panic, he anchors the film and guides the audience through an emotional minefield.

Oliver Martinez, with his Euro-trash suavity, is both infuriating and beguiling.  His easy-going charm masks a calculating brain.  It's easy to understand his success with women.

That rare movie that can almost justify its sex scenes, Unfaithful shows us, in the clinch, trepidation, exultation, and degradation.  We feel the accelerating disintegration, we share the confusion and the glee...and we can intuit the husband's response.

Daringly edited (the commuter-train reverie), and full of ingenious plot twists (including a brilliantly conceived series of revelations courtesy of—yes!—a snow globe), Unfaithful is a relentless thriller that forces us to think.

 

★★★☆☆

Best for ages 18+

FEATURING

RICHARD GERE, DIANE LANE, AND OLIVER MARTINEZ

© 2023 Ian C. Bloom