Unfaithful

Plot synopsis:
Edward (Richard Gere) and Connie Sumner (Diane Lane) are a married couple living in the northern suburbs of New York City (Westchester County, New York) with their 8-year-old son, Charlie (Erik Per Sullivan). Their relationship is loving, but familiar and lacking excitement. One afternoon, Connie goes shopping for Charlie's upcoming birthday party. She is caught in a heavy windstorm, and runs into a handsome stranger (Olivier Martinez). They both fall, and Connie scrapes her knees. He offers to treat her injuries in his apartment, and she accepts. He introduces himself as Paul Martel, a 27-year-old used book salesman. Paul makes small advances toward Connie, which makes her uncomfortable, and she decides to leave. Before doing so, Paul gives her a book of Persian poetry as a gift. After returning home, Connie tells Edward what happened, and he suggests they buy Paul a thank-you gift.
While reading the book Paul gave her, Connie finds his phone number inside. Connie calls Paul from Grand Central Station for his address, but he invites her over for coffee instead. Paul reads Connie a book in Braille amidst mild flirting. Connie, despite her feelings of attraction, leaves. Connie is unable to stop thinking about Paul, and decides to visit him with a bag of muffins. After Connie and Paul have a dance, she stops, saying she can't continue, and leaves. When she returns to retrieve her coat, Paul literally sweeps her off her feet and into his bed. While on a train ride home via the Metro-North Railroad, Connie recalls their sexual encounter. She is thrilled by the sexual attention she is receiving from a younger man, but feels guilty at the same time. Connie uses her work at a charity event as an excuse to visit Paul more frequently, but Edward senses something and sees subtle changes in her, which is confirmed by an inconsistency in an excuse she uses to visit the city one day. One morning he notices that Connie is fixing herself up to go into the city, with brand new lingerie and shoes, and he tells Connie he will wait for her so they can go into the city together. She urges him to go without her, that she won't be ready for a while, so he tries to get her to agree to meet him for lunch, but she says she has a salon appointment and won't be able to meet him. Later on, at the office, suspecting Connie is lying, Edward calls the salon she mentioned and it is confirmed that she doesn't have a salon appointment that day.
Edward hires a private investigator, Frank Wilson (Dominic Chianese), to follow her. Frank returns with pictures of Connie and Paul together, which devastates Edward. Connie's visits with Paul become more frequent, to the point that she is late to pick up Charlie from school. Following this incident, she realizes she can no longer carry on the affair. Unsuccessfully trying to end the affair over the phone, Connie decides it would be best to do so in person. She spots Paul with another woman when she arrives. After confronting Paul, their argument ends in a tryst in the stairwell. At the same time, Edward is standing outside Paul's apartment building, where Edward and Connie narrowly miss each other. Edward goes to Paul's doorstep and confronts him, revealing that he is Connie's husband. Edward asks to come into Paul's apartment, and after Paul invites him in, Edward is stunned to see a snow globe there, which he recognizes as a gift he gave to Connie for their anniversary. Paul reveals that Connie gave it to him as a gift. Feeling disoriented after having a shot of vodka, Edward suddenly has a mental breakdown and hits Paul with the snow globe, severely fracturing his skull and killing him.
After wrapping Paul's body in a rug and cleaning up evidence of the murder and of his own presence in the apartment, Edward hears Connie leaving a message on Paul's answering machine, saying she must end the affair. Edward erases all the messages and leaves, putting Paul's body in the trunk of his car. Edward joins his wife at Charlie's school play, and afterwards, dumps Paul's body at a landfill. In the ensuing days, Paul's murder plagues Edward, who is unable to stop thinking about what he has done. When two police detectives arrive at the Sumner home, they explain to Connie that Paul's estranged wife had reported him missing, and that they had found Connie's phone number in his apartment. Connie claims she only bought a book from him. A week later, the detectives return and tell Connie and Edward that they had found Paul's body. When police ask her how she first met Paul, she replies that she met Paul at a fundraiser. To Connie's surprise, Edward corroborates her story. Later that night, Connie finds Frank's photos of her and Paul, and realizes that Edward knows about the affair. After noticing that the snow globe has been returned to their home, Connie deduces that Edward murdered Paul.
Connie and Edward argue and, out of anger and frustration, Edward says that he wanted to kill her instead of Paul. In the days that follow, while looking at the underside of the snow globe, Connie discovers a hidden compartment containing a photograph of her, Edward, and an infant Charlie, with a loving anniversary message from Edward. As Connie is burning the photographs of her and Paul in the fireplace, Edward says he will turn himself in. Connie objects, saying they will find a way to move on. The two then appear to go about living a normal life. One night, while driving, with Charlie sleeping in the backseat, Edward stops the car at an intersection. Connie whispers to Edward that they could leave the country and assume new identities, and Edward agrees to the idea. Connie then starts crying, and Edward consoles her. It is revealed that Edward has stopped his car near a police station, signifying the constant fear of retribution they will endure for the rest of their lives.

Tags: neo noir, murder, flashback

Review:
I guess not that many movies for women in their 30's plus exist these days!I expected this movie, as I'm sure many people did, to be a Fatal Attraction but with the genders switched around.I was pleasantly surprised and shocked by it NOT being what I expected, and I definitely enjoyed it alot more than Fatal Attraction.The summary of this movie is that Diane Lane's character starts cheating on her husband (Richard Gere) with a beautiful French man(Olivier Martinez).
Whoever thought that director Adrian Lyne and star Richard Gere were finished needs to see this haunting and provocative film.
For all their star power though, it is the female star Diane Lane who must take huge credit for making this such an effective movie.I've always liked Lane as an actress from when she was a kid in Francis Ford Coppola films, but she rarely got the chance to 'carry' a film.
Stunning acting.While the committed performances are what make a great movie greater, it is Adrian Lyne who has constructed such a wonderful and effective rhythm and style to UNFAITHFUL.
Diane Lane was the main reason i got this film out because i had heard so many good things about her performance and that she has won the Oscar nomination for best actress in the films main role.
I expected quite a good, slightly arty film with good performances (particularly from Diane Lane, who really impressed me in Coppola's "The Cotton Club").
I can accept that - no really, I can, although I don't see how anyone could miss the brilliant acting (one user comment said that any Hollywood actress could have done Diane Lane's performance - well, I DO look forward to the J.Lo remake in a few years), or the amazing photography, this being one of the most lush and seductive films I have seen in a long time.
Nor did Lyne simplify the relationship between Connie and Paul (someone called him Marcel - perhaps they DID watch another movie, or just couldn't spell his surname) - in fact, I would suggest that anyone who thought Connie was willing to sleep with the first guy she met would do well to rewatch this film and see the way that her mind works (or do you need a voice-over narration in addition to Lane's phenomenal performance?).
Though Richard Gere gets star billing, it's the beautiful Diane Lane who has the most screen time.
Richard Gere hasn't had a successful movie in years, and hopefully he'll get back on the ball with "Unfaithful."  He delivers a fine, subtle performance and though I may be out on a limb, I'll say it's one of his best.
I felt that the affair between Connie Sumner (Diane Lane) and Paul Martel (Olivier Martinez) was just a basic physical attraction.
It's perhaps her best adult performance in her career which started in 1979 when she was just 14 in the wonderful comedy/drama "A Little Romance"."Unfaithful" has a few weaknesses but luckily they are overshadowed by the film's many strengths, especially Diane Lane..
In fact it is Diane Lane's unforgettable performance which lifts Unfaithful from superb to greatness.
For much of his career,director Adrian Lyne has clearly had sex on the brain,or thoughts of eroticial porno,turning out huff and puff features both good(the Oscar winning Fatal Attraction and the controversial Lolita)and bad(9 1/2 Weeks and Indecent Proposal,the latter firmly cemented as one of the worst films of its decade).
Happily,Unfaithful rests more toward the upper end of the spectrum;based on a 1969 French film by Claude Chabrol(La Femme Infidele),the movie sports a continental demeanor that seems wholly appreciate,but as a whole we have seen this kind of adulterated behavior several times before.
A well to do housewife seemingly content with her husband(Richard Gere,is one of his best works here and one of his finest performances since the latter part of the 80's and early 90's),her son (Erik Per Sullivan),and her home in a quaint New York(upscale Manhattan) suburb,unexpectedly enters into a torrid affair with a French book dealer(Oliver Martinez-who looks like something out of grocery store paperback novel and one of those daytime TV soap hunks).
Lane's complex portrayal of a woman caught between the borders of reason and risk is simply smashing,yet eventually she's not required to carry the picture by herself,as the second half heads off in some interesting and unexpected directions that ultimately lead to the wonderful amibiguous final shot.
From watching some promotional interviews, Richard Gere said there were a couple of endings shot for the movie, and he personally liked the ending that finally was used.
The acting by Richard Gere is some of his best work in a long time, but the tour deforce performance in he movie belongs to Diane Lane.
STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsConnie and Edward Sumner (Diane Lane and Richard Gere) are a well off couple,living in the New York suburbs and raising their young son Charlie (Erik Per Sullivan).Edward,however,is the manager of a big name import/delivery service and seems to be neglecting his wife somewhat lately.On one particularly windy day,Connie has an encounter with a handsome (and much younger) stranger,who she later comes to know as Paul Martel (Olivier Martinez) a New York based book dealer who takes an instant shine to her.Before long,the pair are engaging in an outrageous adulterous fling behind Edward's back.The truly nasty twist comes,however,when Edward discovers about the affair.This is a stylish and competent thriller.It may not perhaps have the best character development/build-up in the world,but it is really lifted no end by Gere's powerful performance as the devastated betrayed hubby,which really comes to light when he goes to confront Martinez.Adrian Lyne's direction is carried along nicely,thrilling us with many sudden twists and turns,marvellously executed and hitting the mark perfectly.***.
Even though it includes a murder (which is not even premeditated), it actually is a drama and centers more on the damage caused by the affair.Unfaithful shows an emotional depth rarely found in mainstream movies, and the common nature of the subject (who hasn't seen unfaithful people around them?) makes it all the more involving for the audience.
Richard Gere also gives a good performance as the husband who crashes down to earth after first suspecting and then obtaining confirmation of what is going on.The movie has some weaknesses.
The movie also does not have an explicit ending, which may not please some viewers.However, Unfaithful is worth seeing just for the acting, and tends to sit on your mind long after you've seen it, a bit like Hitchcock's Vertigo.
In no way did I believe that Lane and Gere loved or cared about each other or their child at any point in the film.
Throw into the mix the chance encounters Lane has with friends and employees from her husband's business, the way that Gere acts toward his employees and the totally lack of discretion on Lane's part and you get a forced tale of washed up cliches, sterotypes, improper casting and poor scripting.The only saving grace in the whole movie are the voracious sex scenes and especially Lane's recollection of one in particular.The ending...well lets just say that if a train would have came crashing through the intersection, I would have been happy..
Diane Lane is a knock-out and Richard Gere shines in sexy, cool and engrossing thriller.Adrian Lyne's Unfaithful is sensational sex-and-its-consequences melodrama at it's very best.
It's a movie in which an ordinary woman from the New York suburbs, played with startling conviction and amazing range by the beautiful Diane Lane, begins to sneak away from her beautiful white dream home in the Hudson Valley, deceiving the family she loves so much in order to indulge in a cathartic sexual fling with a simply gorgeaous French hunk who's built like an Adonis.
Her husband slowly suspects and then learns of the affair, and when he discovers how far it's gone, his reaction comes as as big a shock to him as it does to us.''Unfaithful'' is a domestic thriller that's been made with so much sultry juice and power that it is bound to have you thinking and talking about it long after the end credits roll.
What the film observes very, very well is the deep, rich comforts of family life aren't always enough to keep even a contented person from straying.Connie Sumner (Lane) loves her doting, slightly fuddy-duddy security contractor husband, Edward (Richard Gere), as well as the life they share with their perky 8-year-old son.
Lyne shoots the sex scenes like slivers of delirium that flirt with but never slide into fantasy, and Lane, in the most urgent performance of her long career, is nothing short of incredible -- a revelation.
I hope the Academy remeber this performance, because it is Oscar worthy without doubt.Diane Lane's work in the film's intriguing and gripping second half, however, wouldn't be possible without Richard Gere's own understated performance that is one of his very best.
Diane Lane owns this film in what has to be one of the alltime great performances made by an actress.
Diane Lane cheats on husband Richard Gere with hunky Olivier Martinez, hence the title of the film.
What "Unfaithful" does feature is an excellent performance by Diane Lane, who really carries the water for the film.
Lane makes her character's choices and actions believable, elevating what could have easily been an empty-headed Zalman King "Red Shoes Diaries" type of softcore film to something more interesting.
The unfaithful person is one Connie Sumner (Diane Lane), wife to Edward (Richard Gere).
In fact, IMO the only film Lyne has ever made that was really worth watching was Jacob's Ladder.Yes, Diane Lane shows her body in "Unfaithful"...
There are other films that showcase her talent AND her body far better ("Walk on the Moon" being one of my personal favorites).The only real shining star in this movie is Olivier Martinez, and he doesn't have much to work with here.
I mean, give us a break, Mr. Lyne, with such nice looking father as Mr. Gere and a gorgeous mother, Ms. Lane, you would have expected the kid to be as photogenic and a great presence on screen, instead, we keep wondering: Is this kid adopted?In order to make the story a little more realistic, Mr. Lyne should have insisted in keeping Richard Gere's hair without the help of Clairol or whatever they dyed his hair with, because then, the film would have made sense as we all would have told ourselves, well Edward can't satisfy Connie and that's why she goes into the affair.
We are not given any indication of what's wrong with their marriage since all appears to be honky-dory on the surface.The cliche of having a French lover has probably been used too much already and Paul Martel, the Olivier Martinez character can provide a lot of kinky sex and raise Connie's libido.
Her Husband, Edward Sumner played by Richard Gere starts getting suspicious and wonders where Connie's head is at.
I wouldn't know either, but if I were to guess how it feels to be in that situation, it would be the exact performance that Diane Lane gives in 'Unfaithful'.'Unfaithful', although a very forgettable film (kind of a Richard Gere curse I think), gives us some great performances, some steamy scenes, and some disappointments.
However, with Adrian Lyne's "UNFAITHFUL" Richard Gere has completely re-invented himself and delivers a performance that may well be his careers best.
If you ever wondered how it might be to just see how life is on the other side, this movie is a must.Gere has never ever done a better job, his in control but on the edge character was perfect and would have been a walkaway for the best performance if it were not for Diane Lane.
I Waited Almost 8 Months To See This Movie- When I First Saw The Preview, The Whole Thing Looked Right Up My Alley- I Thought That Diane Lane Did A Great Job- But More Than Anything, I Was Very Impressed With Richard Gere, It's Such An Odd Role For Him To Play- This Movie Is One That Will For Sure Not Make You Want To Have An Affair- Adrine Lyne- Is A Great Director- And He Made This Movie So Creatively- And Graphicly, That You Just Know That He Is One Of The Best Directors Of The Modern Age. This Movie Ended Very Well- I Didn't Know That It Might Be That Predictable- But It Was Still Great Acting- Great Story- & Great Directing!
a very good film with superlative acting by the wonderful diane lane.
This is a wonderful film with sexy and superb performances by Diane Lane, Richard Gere and the incredibly hot Olivier Martinez..
Having said that, I usually hate Richard Gere, although Diane Lane I feel is a great actress.
The tension builds begins to wind-up when Richard Gere starts to suspect that Diane Lane is doing things she shouldn't.
This is by far the best I have seen Richard Gere for years, he looks better than he has for ages, and also gives a good performance.
He actually acts extremely well here.Unfaithful is really Diane Lane's tour-de-force though, and she is so brilliant as Constance that it is hard to remember a better female star performance.
When, near the end of the film, she pictures what would have happened if she'd turned the other way and not gone with Martinez, Lane is simply heart-breaking in her intensity and emotions.
I regard this movie as a "perfect storm," fed by the hitherto unjoined forces of Lyne, Lane, Gere and Martinez.
If they could only add a touch of humor to their enlightened argument, they might at least give Lyne some credit for having managed to annoy them (since no one, so far as I can tell, is merely indifferent to what he's done).Some hostile viewers, recognizing that the movie does, perhaps, somehow really happen, find themselves conceding that Diane Lane does a wonderful thing in a vehicle beneath her talents.
Diane Lane undeniably holds together this film with a magnificent Oscar-nominated performance as the middle-class housewife who has a fling with a charming young Frenchman with tragic consequences.The first hour or so of this film does play like any stereotypical "housewife fantasy".
It is to Lyne, the script and his cast's credit that the film remains completely involving as both couples secrets become clear, and they are forced to regain and find strength in their relationship in different ways for their families survival.On the downside, Gere is heavily outclassed in the acting stakes by Lane, though the chemistry is there which is important.
They have a short conversation before something unexpected happens...One particularly poignant scene is that when after all's clear, one day, while at home, Edward is playing the piano with their son, and Connie picks up that thing (that gift of love, that weapon of fury) which is a present from Edward but which she gave Paul as a gift, saying 'WINDY CITY'...and right there she finds that hidden message from Edward, and they look into each other's eyes...Well filmed, well acted.
DIANE LANE's Oscar nominated performance lifts UNFAITHFUL to greatness.
UNFAITHFUL is a terrific movie, but it benefits even more from one of THE GREAT all time performances by it's star.
DIANE LANE (The Perfect Storm, Streets Of Fire) re-teams with her "Cotton Club" co-star RICHARD GERE and she gives an astonishing Oscar nominated performance that is sexy, haunting and extremely human and sympathetic despite her actions.
The movie shows the difficulties ofliving a lie and a double life.Most often, the result of unfaithfulness is disastrous.The acting is superb, especially that of Diane Lane.
A haunting and effecting film with Diane Lane giving the performance of her career..
"Unfaithful" is a remake of the French movie "Une Femme Infidele." The story follows Connie Sumner, played by Diane Lane, as a wife and mother who finds the spark gone from her marriage.
This leads to a torrid love affair, and ultimately, an act of desperation by her husband, Edward, played by Richard Gere.
Diane Lane puts in a fine performance, saying much in her facial expressions, and Richard Gere plays the part of the cuckolded husband adequately.
Don't get me wrong, I love Diane Lane and Richard Gere, they're both very talented and versatile.
Last 1/3 starring Richard Gere as Cuckold the Schmuck.Saw this on TV, so I missed out on the hot, hot Adrian Lyne sex scenes, but Lane and Marinez are easy on the eyes.
They create an interesting blend of drama and suspense here, with wife Diane Lane having the affair, and husband Richard Gere wondering how long he can put up with it.I don't know whether this is really any masterpiece.
His love for his wife "Connie", played by Diane Lane is ever present.
But pieced together around the centerpiece of the project, Diane Lane, who plays an adulteress wife, the film actually takes on a life of its own.
Richard Gere too was quite good as the husband who knows and loves his wife but is aware there's something that's different about the way she's acting (he's pretty sure of what it is but has her followed anyway which pushes him over the edge).
Gere's screen time really doesn't compare to Lane's until quite awhile into the film.
Enhanced by a style of directing both fresh and varied throughout the movie (Lyne shows great range in this single film, using different styles as the story takes a new direction at several points), Unfaithful will not let you down; especially recommended for anyone who hasn't seen very many thrillers out there.
A gripping and involving film with a stellar performance by Diane Lane.
There is some wonderful humor in the film as well.The much hyped Diane Lane sex scenes are spectacularly done, but they are also not gratuitous.Unfaithful, is one of the best films this year with some of the best acting ever seen.