UNFAITHFUL

1 STAR

Film Review © 2002 by Trip Reynolds

Drama

Directed by Adrian Lyne; Screenplay by William Broyles and Alvin Sargent; Produced by Adrian Lyne, G. Mac Brown, Anne Kopelson and Arnold Kopelson; Executive Produced by Lawrence Steven Meyers, Arnon Milchan, and Pierre-Richard Muller.

Starring Richard Gere (as the loving and ultimately weak husband, Edward Sumner), Diane Lane (as the loving and adulteress wife, Connie Sumner), Olivier Martinez (as Connie's two-timing lover, Paul Martel), Erik Per Sullivan (as Charlie), Zeljko Ivanek (as Detective Dean), Dominic Chianese (as Frank Wilson), Kate Burton (as Tracy), Chad Lowe (as Bill Stone), Gary Basaraba (as Detective Mirojnick), and Margaret Colin (as Sally).

Connie and Edward Sumner are the perfectly-in-love affluent suburban couple. They genuinely care for each other. As expected with these adult-soft-core-mainstream-films, Edward's a typical boring husband who spends his days working in Manhattan, while his footloose and fancy-free wife, Connie, is free to roam both suburbia and the city to suit her pleasure. Of course, Connie is the kind of woman who's really, I mean really, faithful to her husband but, well...unless, of course, the right guy comes along at the right time and...then she kinda, well, unfaithful. So, film has Connie accidentally meeting a book dealer, Paul, and then recklessly screwing him nearly anywhere and anytime. Yawn here. Oh, the eroticism is appropriately steamy but, afterall, soft-core is only soft-core. Consequently, film needs to have a script that payoffs because the sex scenes don't, and acting by all players seems by-the-numbers.

Eventually, Edward begins to suspect Connie's philandering, hires a private detective, gets the necessary photographic evidence, confronts Paul, and in an emotional rage kills him. Film had the potential to be much better but fell into a needless pseudo-murder mystery. Film seemed to suggest that Edward was too smart to allow a thing like murder to occur. Then, when the police start to investigate both Connie and Edward about the disappearance of Paul, film also seemed to suggest that Edward and Connie were too smart to think they could somehow mutually conceal from the police Connie's adultery and the murder of Paul by Edward. Film ends with Connie and Edward sitting in their car, reflecting on events surrounding the murder of Paul, and appearing perplexed.

It's lousy films like "Unfaithful" that give porno a better value for your time, money and eroticism.

Film is directed pretentiously by Adrian Lyne, and should have been trimmed by at least 30 minutes.

Film has a laborious running length of 124 minutes.

Recommendation: Go rent or purchase "My Baby Got Back #22," and let Monique show you the real deal!