As some of you may know, my mother is an author. All of her previous books were for children or young adults, but her latest project is a novel for grown ups. In the original story, the protagonist comes dangerously close to cheating on her kind-hearted husband with whom she has a wonderful relationship. My mom's agent was disappointed that the narrator does not consummate this relationship, and he encouraged my mom to write a sex scene into the novel. She was reluctant to do this because the husband in the story is such a sweet person. Her agent encouraged her to watch Unfaithful for inspiration.

After watching this gorgeous film by Adrian Lyne (Fatal Attraction, Lolita (1997)), my mom was able to type a racy sex scene, as she understood what might lead a happily married woman to pursue an affair.

Connie Sumner (Diane Lane) lives a seemingly perfect life in Westchester County. Her husband Edward (Richard Gere), an executive for a successful Manhattan company, takes the Metro North into the city every day, and Connie often joins him for lunch after an appointment at a day spa or shopping. Despite having been married for eleven years, the Sumners have a seemingly healthy sex life. In an early scene, Edward comes home with a new video camera, and they are about to get frisky, but they are interrupted by their son Charlie (Eric Per Sullivan of Malcolm in the Middle), who is mainly in the film for comic relief. He says things that are supposed to be really adorable but are actually annoying. However, he has the occasional cute line such as, "What's 'accountable'? Is that like people eating people?"

The young boy's role in the film is also to remind the viewer that Connie has responsibilities at home. Commonly, when someone has an affair, the first question an outsider will ask is, "Were there children involved?" Connie's infidelity is juxtaposed with her caring for Charlie (he still sometimes wets the bed and suffers from nightmares), which makes her actions seem worse. Even though she knows that her son needs her, Connie is unable to tear herself away from her passionate lover Paul (Olivier Martinez).

Connie meets Paul on a particularly windy day in Manhattan. She is literally knocked down by a gust, crashing into Paul on the way down. Connie skins her knee and causes Paul to drop the stack of books he is carrying. Against her better judgment, Connie agrees to go up to Paul's apartment to clean up her wound. A book dealer, Paul has a flat that looks more like a library than a home. He insists that Connie choose a book from his collection before she leaves. Without even looking at the shelf, Paul tells Connie to take the third book from the left and to read aloud from page 23, which I thought was a rather outrageous choice by Lyne.

Even though Connie is happily married, she finds herself helplessly drawn to Paul. Since she doesn't know much about him, we assume that her immediate attraction to him is due to his sexy French accent, soulful eyes, and pure animal lust. Edward represents the logical choice for a mate: stable and caring but somewhat boring. Paul, on the other hand, is a mysterious, handsome stranger.

While young Charlie brings innocence and simple morals to the film, Paul seems to lack a conscience. He never shows even the slightest hint of guilt at sleeping with a married woman. When Connie tells him that she thinks that she should never have returned to Paul's apartment, he says, "There is no such thing as a mistake. There are things you do, and things you don't do."

The sex scenes in Unfaithful are shockingly explicit at times, sometimes bordering on nonconcentual. The first time Connie and Paul end up in bed together, she tells him that she doesn't think she can go through with it and seems to resist his advances. He tells her to hit him in the face, fights off her smacks, and they get it on. In another scene, when Connie is again questioning whether or not she should continue the relationship, Paul forces himself on Connie in the hallway outside his apartment. They also have wild sex in the bathroom of a tiny café and in the middle of a movie theater, which seemed very unrealistic.

Throughout the film, Connie is conflicted. She knows that what she is doing is wrong, but she cannot stop herself from doing it. Diane Lane is absolutely brilliant in this role. The famous scene of her riding home on the train after the first sexual encounter with Paul was shot in one take and is one of the most impressive few minutes of film I have seen in recent memory. We see Connie's expression change from euphoric to guilty to terrified and back again, visibly hating herself at the same time. She locks herself in the tiny bathroom, scrubbing herself violently in an attempt to clean off the sin.

Richard Gere is wonderfully subtle as Edward. His character teetered on the edge of exploding with jealousy quite often.

Unfaithful is also gorgeously filmed. Both the city scenes and the shots of the Sumners' beautiful, lake-front property are stunning. Certain images of trains and railroad stations are stylistic but work very well.

One criticism I have of Unfaithful is that the story and some of the aspects of the film were very conventional. For instance, Edward hires a private detective who presents him with black and white photos of Connie and Paul leaving a cinema. The story would have been painfully ordinary if it weren't for Gere and Lane's amazing performances. I also felt unsatisfied by the abrupt ending.

But, overall, Unfaithful is a successful film because it made me feel uncomfortable and disturbed. At one point, Connie runs into some friends on the street where Paul lives. They stop by a café and, conveniently, one of the friends brings up the topic of extramarital affairs. "They always end disastrously," she states. That line haunted me for the rest of the film and the rest of the day.





Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age