Unfaithful (2002)

Olivier Martinez sure knew how to badly hiss lines like "Go back to your carpool, your suburb, your tennis!"

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Damn OP, you just reminded me what a great, classic movie this could've been. It's really too bad that it all fell apart in the last act.

I have it on DVD. It's my guilty pleasure.

I tend to believe that the montage sequence of Diane Lane on the train, remembering the sex she had that afternoon, earned her the Oscar nom. The guild and the pleasure mixed together, she conveyed it so well.

Oh, and I love all the Soho locations, even though they enter the Strand on a street in Soho.

guild = guilt

I was about to say R4, that Diane Lane was brilliant on the train. Wasn't this the last theatrical release directed by Adrian Lyne?

Diane was amazing.

She was so good in this I beat her up after the premiere.

Diane won both the National Society of Film Critics Awards and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best actress award for Unfaithful.

Heard from someone close to the director that he wanted Richard Gere to pack on some weight so that when he undressed for the bathtub scene, we'd see the marked physical difference between the husband and lover. Gere refused.

This movie is what started my crush on Diane Lane. I swear I have the weirdest taste sometimes, and shes not even my type. She's twice my age too.

Loved this movie too and saw it a few times.

x

To me, Gere can do no wrong. But he and Diane? Magical.

Loved "Nights in Rodanthe," also.

Nights in Rodanthe is an overlooked gem.

My anus puckered to "Nights in Rodanthe."

I liked it, too.

It's a great movie, and Diane Lane is amazing in it. The last scene where they sit in front of the stoplight until it turns red slays me.

Gere can do no wrong? Have you SEEN Chicago??

Richard Gere is underrated. I really liked him in The Hoax. Though, Unfaithful is really Diane Lane's movie.

R4 good acting but it's more an editing triumph at some moments. What would she, as an actress, been directed to do? Look sad in one take, wistful in another, and so on and so forth. Then the editor splices a,k those clips together to pair with her expressions.

Yes, r 20, Gere is great in The Hoax, and he's very good here too - he's underrated in general but while many more acclaimed actors are coasting at his age, he's continually working on getting better - similar to Michael Douglas. He has improved by leaps and bounds since the 80s IMO - true, he's had some spectacular misses since then (ummmm...Intersection, First Knight), but also his greatest successes (The Hoax, Arbitrage, The Hunting Party, Chicago, Primal Fear, and probably his best, Internal Affairs, where he did a nice inversion of his screen persona).

Of course, that was my only major issue with this movie - buying that anyone would leave Richard Gere. Especially because Olivier Martinez has just never been my type, ever.

It doesn't take much, but it's definitely Lyne's best movie. Probably his only good movie, period.

Richard Gere: For those of you who haven't seen it, check out Terrence Malick's "Days of Heave" to see R. Gere's early stages of development as an actor and his incredible, youthful beauty.

Adrian Lyne: "Foxes" (Jody Foster, Sally Kellerman, Cherie Curry, Randy Quaid, Scott Baio, and "Angel"(!) (LA band).) Very good movie / soundtrack for its time. (Lyne's feature film directorial debut.)

(The opening scene/music of the girls' sleeping is beautifully photographed & scored.)

"Days of HEAVEN" !!

(Gawd, I hate it when I do that!)

R21, untrue, Jacob's Ladder is one of the best horror movies I've ever seen, definitely one of the five best horror movies of the nineties. I would say that was an great movie, at least a very good one.

OP, I agree, I never tire of watching Unfaithful.

Riveting very suspenseful script and storyline, and Richard Gere was gorgeous in it.

I've watching it at least 6 times. It plays fairly regularly on cable channels.

Great movie.

Oddly, there is no other movie that I will watch that many times.

Oh, Gods and Monsters - love that movie and have seen it probably 8 times and never tire of it.

Also love Reds with Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton.

OMG, wasn't the little boy perfect casting? He looked just how you'd imagine their kid would look.

[quote]It's still one of the most watchable movies of all time.

You think? One of..please name the others.

[quote]I almost never watch a movie more than once and I think I've seen this one seven, eight, ten times.

What do you think it is about this that captivates you so much? Diane? Richard? Olivier? The little boy?

The film is unremarkable. But Lyne's visuals and direction are excellent. The big love scene with that one piece of music - I can't remember the name or the singer - is incredible, with Diane Lane shaking like a leaf.

Adrien Lyne is good at one very particular type of thing, but he portrays desire and intimacy like no one else. Fatal Attraction, you name it.

I like the Soho NYC scenery too. And the Connecticut scenery.

It is riveting suspense.

I rarely watch a movie more than once too, but I've watched Unfaithful 6 or 8 times.

The part where Gere confronts Martinez in his loft and then hits him several times with the snow globe Diane had given him was kinda comical. Especially when Martinez just stood there dazed, the blood pouring out, and he just dropped.

[quote] Especially when Martinez just stood there dazed, the blood pouring out, and he just dropped.

How would you have staged it?

For some reason it's the scene in the café opposite the Martinez loft that stays with me...when she cornered by the yentas she knows from the suburbs and they don't know what the fuck is going on.

Diane Lane at her Sexiest!

When she gets stranded in the windstorm, the wind whipping around her, blowing open her trench coat, exposing the vulnerability of her beautiful legs; and

The scene in the cafe with Martinez, Lyne's photographing her in profile, highlighting the incredible sexiness of her body, in that simple, unassuming crew neck sweater and jeans.

Well yes R4, given that everyone from Roger Ebert on down made the same remarks that probably was the case.

Yes R21, you're right. Unfaithful, like every film that came before it and every single one that came after, had an editor.

R24 - agree about Jacob's Ladder. Haven't seen it over 10 years but still remember the scene when he's being brought into the ER, god that was terrifying. Great movie.

Diane was both an early bloomer and a late bloomer. She was remarkably good as a child star, but had second blooming starting in her late 30s.

Im about to watch it again thanks to this thread haha, I watched it years ago I think is time to watch it again. It was an excellent film. I wish hollywood would make more dramas and ercotic thrillers like before now its all stupid superhero movies, comercial book adaptations(like twilight), remakes, kids animeted films etc etc

[quote]Well yes [R4], given that everyone from Roger Ebert on down made the same remarks that probably was the case.

I never read any of the reviews of the film. I didn't even see the film when it came out; I saw it on TV for the first time.

I work in film and I am very familiar with the work of Anne V. Coates. I actually met her in NYC during the time she was editing Unfaithful and we talked about Chabrol's film.

My recognition of the train montage was more in relation to her work.

That's true, R39. What happened to the erotic thriller? They were huge, huge business in the late 80's/early 90's. Basic Instinct was one of the highest grossers of the year. Hollywood has gotten so myopic in its view that it literally only knows how to make one type of movie nowadays.

I think the problem is so much of that kind of more explicit content has moved to more and more daring cable TV - Deadwood, Game of Thrones, Girls, etc. Mainstream movies are less interested. Plus it's hard to shock an audience today.

At the same time, it's paradoxical: We had Basic Instinct in 1992, but could you still greenlight a big budget erotic thriller with big stars, a top director and screenwriter, featuring dykes and bisexual chicks showing full frontal muff in 2014 and release it nationwide? No, that film would be made as a budget-conscious arthouse or indie film with maybe a few stars, play NY and LA and then hit VOD. That market has become niche. In the late 80s and early 90s it was mainstream, big box office. Now you have something like, say, Nymphomaniac relegated to the province of Lars von Trier's VOD and specialty releases.

I love the scene when Connie leaves Paul Martel's apartment and then comes back and says she forgot her coat and he just TACKLES her and lifts her up to stop her from leaving again. And of course that great scene of Connie remembering it all on the train.

So weird how Ed and Connie are both lying to the cops about Paul Martel but neither can tell the other WHY they're lying but they both know the other's story is phony.

The scene near the end when Connie is burning the pics of her and Paul and she's imagining that she caught a cab instead of ever going into his apartment is very poignant--no one would've ever gotten hurt if she'd just gotten that cab.

I love this movie.

1:00 a.m., Philly area, Ch. 17.

"Constance." As in Lady Chatterly.

x

I find Diane Lane comforting and will watch whatever she's in. Even "Must love Dogs".

I'm megagay but this movie made me moist.

R38 - Diane became sexy in her 30s.

[quote]Olivier Martinez sure knew how to badly hiss lines like "Go back to your carpool, your suburb, your tennis!"

I was going to say this exact thing, R1.

Just saw it again last night.

If you're going to cast a Frenchman with a very poor and broken English don't give him lines like that. Everything he said sounded flat.

[quote]I almost never watch a movie more than once

How come?

No naysayers at all, aside from the consensus that the ending doesn't work. I'm not sure if I've seen it, but I'll download it if it's available.

Martinez was a French god in this film but damn his looks went downhill fast. What the hell happened?

[quote] I'm not sure if I've seen it, but I'll download it if it's available.

Thank you SO much.

Olivier Martinez

I couldn't get my head around Gere being a nasty man.

He looked so sweet in this.

Yet he's supposed to be this mega-tough business guy capable of and indeed murdering his wife's lover.

Adrian Lyne makes deeply flawed very entertaining films. He gets so much wrong but they end up working on a certain level.

I love this movie - one of Adrian Lyne's best looking. The costumes and production design are gorgeous - more tasteful and lived in than Nancy Meyers' design porn. The music is perfect. Honestly, the multiple negatives of the film don't even bother me, it is such a pleasure to watch.

Fun fact - Adrian Lyne wanted to adapt the book Ben Affleck's The Town was based on for years with Tom Cruise.

I once saw the French film it was based on but it was a case of it being SO different I could barely recognise the story, as far as I remember.

"I find Diane Lane comforting and will watch whatever she's in. Even "Must love Dogs".

Same here. Yes, I have seen "Must love Dogs" more times than I care to admit. Diane Lane would have had a major career had she been born in France. She has been very underused in U.S. Movies.

Where does Lynn find the kids for his movies?

Would their son have looked like this?

I think Olivier should have showed some flesh...his dick even. We didn't even see his ass.

Diane Lane looks so perfect.

Diane Lane is a terrific actress, and weirdly, even after the success of this film and Oscar nomination, she returned to the unremarkable films, although Under the Tuscan Sun became a frau favourite.

She's kind of back where she was after being a child star - an underrated actress in search of a great role. She's solid in everything she does but she deserves a role worthy of her talents. I've always found her an interesting actress. Even in the late '80s, she would pick unusual parts like Lady Beware.

R61

The French would have showed his hell even an erect dick.

She sucked in that great fishing boat disaster movie, but I guess she was still young then

Meryl was robbed of an Oscar nomination this year for The Hours.

Martinez is on record saying he won't do nudity. Pity.

I do like this film but I'm of the same opinion that the ending needs improvement.

Any suggestions on a better final act?

Some of it is risibly bad. Like that fucking ridiculous wind storm with all the paper swirling around Lane as she fumbles around the street.

That said - I also agree with many of the comments here. Lane was never better. The music was sublime and brilliantly deployed, especially Brad Mehldau's version Radiohead's Exit Music( for a Film). And there were many smaller moments that give what could've been an overwrought potboiler a real sense poignancy and depth.

For my money - Kate Burton's cameo was the high point. Her speech about the affair she had and how it upended her life. So nuanced - yet masterful. And moving. She is so so underrated.

Let's not forget - this came out not too long after 9/11. I live in NYC and the haunted quality of this movie really seeped into my bones at the time.

[quote]Diane Lane would have had a major career had she been born in France.

This is true of a number of American actresses, sadly. Lots of underutilized powerhouses who basically need an entirely different film culture in order to fulfill their potential.

[quote]Diane Lane is a terrific actress, and weirdly, even after the success of this film and Oscar nomination, she returned to the unremarkable films, although Under the Tuscan Sun became a frau favourite.

What happened to Diane Lane is the same thing that happened to Elisabeth Shue after Leaving Las Vegas and Virginia Madsen after Sideways: they did terrific work that got them second chances after early careers that had fizzled, and then when their immediate follow-up projects weren't hits on the same level, their comebacks were over. Women rarely manage to get second chances in Hollywood - third chances are almost unheard of. The kind of grace extended to men - think Robert Downey Jr - just doesn't happen.

[quote]I couldn't get my head around Gere being a nasty man.

I don't think he WAS supposed to be a nasty man. I think he was supposed to be a fundamentally decent man who was pushed to the edge by the threatened loss of the thing that mattered most to him. One of the things I believe is illustrated very well in the film is that to Martinez's character, Connie is an enjoyable fling - but to her husband, she's everything. THAT is why he snaps and kills the guy, not because of some inner evil. Any one of us, Lyne seems to be saying, could be him, if the circumstances were right.

The french film this is based on is La femme infidèle, by Claude Chabrol. It is, of course, a much better film, with actors that look like normal people, except for Stephane Audran who is as beautiful as Diane Lane. The ending is also more open (though is suggests thehusband is caught by the police).

I've always liked the fact that the film refuses to pinpoint a reason for Connie's choice to have an affair. Her husband is handsome and successful, and hasn't let himself go. He clearly adores her and values their family. He doesn't do anything wrong. Lyne said that he was under pressure to give a justification for her cheating, but he resisted. He liked the idea of it just being random.

With regard to the ending - the murder scene is contrived and campy, but I think the real problem is that prior to that, the film was a character study. With the murder, it becomes a thriller and the character stuff takes a backseat. Somehow it's just an uneasy mix. But if the murder scene had been handled differently, I still think it could have been rescued from its own slickness.

[Quote] I do like this film but I'm of the same opinion that the ending needs improvement.

I'm not a fan of the ending either. There's an alternate one but i don't think it's any better.

What is the alternate ending?

[Quote] The special edition DVD features the alternate ending where there is a different dialogue after they both kiss in the car, during the final scene. Edward then steps out of the car before walking up and entering the police station. Fox and Regency wanted this ending at first (it was a more Hollywood ending), but the director and the cast insisted that they put in the current ending that is seen on the theatrical release.

From IMDB

Almost great... falls apart... camp... way to sell a movie OP. Pass!