I have been busy with some work related things for the last several weeks and I haven’t had much free time. Now that I’m done with that stuff until after the first of the year I took advantage of my free time to rent some movies. One of them was Unfaithful. I had wanted to see that when it was in the local theater, but I didn't get the chance to see it then. The movie wasn't the best I have seen, but I did enjoy it.

PLOT

Edward and Connie Sumner had been married for eleven years. They had a young son named Charlie. Edward owned his own business. Connie didn’t have a job outside of the home, but she did things to help out at her son’s school. The Sumner family lived in a nice house in the suburbs. Edward and Connie seemed to have a perfect marriage.

It was unusually windy one morning when Edward left to take Charlie to school. Connie headed into the city on the train to run some errands. The wind seemed even worse, blowing Connie around. She was having a lot of trouble walking. She was carrying some bags and couldn’t get a cab. She ran into a man, Paul Martel, who was carrying a stack of books. Connie hurt her knee in the fall. Paul invited her up to his apartment to doctor her knee. Paul’s apartment was full of books because he was a book dealer. He gave Connie a book before she left.

That night, Connie told Edward about her fall and how Paul had helped her. Edward was glad that someone had helped her and even said something about sending Paul a thank you gift. Sometime after that, Connie called Paul to thank him and ended up going to his place for coffee. Connie returned to Paul’s another day and the two started an affair.

Connie started to tell Edward lies to cover for the time she was spending with Paul. She would go to see him during the day when Edward was at work and Charlie was in school. She thought about Paul all the time. She knew what she was doing was wrong, but she kept going back. She continued to have sex with him. Most of the time they stayed at his place, but they did have a few encounters in public places.

Connie couldn’t stay away from Paul. The guilt over the affair was eating her up. Unknown to Connie, a man that worked with Edward, Bill, saw her out with Paul one day. Bill later made a strange comment that got Edward to thinking. Edward started to notice some things about her behavior that didn’t seem right to him. He knew that something was wrong. He caught her in a lie about where she was, but he didn’t say anything to her about it. Edward was suspicious that Connie was up to something. He contacted a private investigator to follow her.

Did Connie and Paul continue their affair? What did the private investigator discover? Did Edward find out about the affair?

CAST

Diane Lane - Connie Sumner
Richard Gere - Edward Sumner
Erik Per Sullivan - Charlie Sumner
Olivier Martinez - Paul Martel
Margaret Colin - Sally
Chad Lowe - Bill Stone

Adrian Lyne - Director

Screenplay by Alvin Sargent

Unfaithful was made in 2002. It was 124 minutes long and rated R for some sexuality and violence. There was some nudity in the movie. Some of the characters did swear during the movie. The word that rhymes with luck was used more than once. Children should not see this movie.

Unfaithful was a serious movie that dealt with a very serious subject. The whole focus of the movie was Connie’s affair with Paul and the consequences of the affair. The movie didn’t really explain why Connie started the affair or why she was willing to risk losing her family over a man she just met. Even before the affair actually started, she was lying to Edward. She seemed to be obsessed with Paul. She became so wrapped up in him that she even forgot to pick Charlie up from school once. She felt guilty about the affair, but she continued it. Connie had to deal with her guilt throughout the movie. There were some severe consequences to the affair that she also had to live with. Another character also did something that they had to live with. I’m not saying who did it, or what was done because I don’t want to say too much about the plot. Having to deal with guilt and the consequences of actions was a major theme of the movie. There were a few light-hearted scenes here and there in the movie, but it was a very serious movie. There was some suspense later in the movie.

Unfaithful was rather predictable. Considering what the main focus of the plot was, there were only a few possible outcomes. I wasn’t sure how the movie would end up at one of the outcomes though. I did think that the trailer that played when the movie was in the theaters gave away a bit too much. One of the characters was heard saying something that was a big clue about what would happen. I’m not saying what was said or who said it in case there are some people out there who haven’t seen the trailer yet. There were a few things that happened that I wasn’t expecting, but it was a predictable movie. There were some things about the movie that did remind me of Fatal Attraction, which was also directed by Adrian Lyne. The main thing that reminded me of the other movie was that both movies focus in on an affair. I don’t want to say anything else because that could end up revealing too much about Unfaithful for people who haven’t seen it yet.

Unfaithful was a long movie with several things going on in it, but there really wasn’t much action in the movie. The plot wasn’t that complex. It started out slowly, showing the Sumner family getting ready for their day. Then it showed the chance meeting between Connie and Paul. The movie built at the slower pace until after the affair was underway, and then it picked up speed. Some people may find the slow build up boring. Even later in the movie there were some slow parts. I wasn’t bored by the movie, but it could be too slow for some people.

There was one violent act in Unfaithful. I’m not saying anything too specific about that act though. It was somewhat gory and there was a lot of blood shown. That scene could be disturbing to some viewers. After the violent act, a character did something that reminded me of a scene in a movie I saw a few months ago, The Morning After. People who have seen both movies will probably know which scene I mean. There was just one violent scene in the movie, so people shouldn’t let the violence stop them from seeing the movie. This wasn’t a violent movie.

The main focus of Unfaithful was the affair between Connie and Paul. There were several sex scenes throughout the movie. The scenes were rather steamy. Diane Lane had some nude scenes, but none of them included full frontal nudity. She was topless more than once. Her bare backside was shown briefly in one scene. Paul and Edward were shown without shirts a few times each, but that was it for nudity for the men. Even during the sex scenes between Paul and Connie, Paul’s backside wasn’t shown. Connie was at least partially nude in most of their sex scenes, but she did have her clothes on in some of them. Flashes of skin were shown in some of the scenes instead of actually nudity. During the first time Connie and Paul had sex, Connie’s quivering stomach and her reactions seemed to be the main focus. That first sex scene was shown as a flashback. Paul and Connie got daring as their affair progressed. They had sex in a public bathroom of a restaurant, a movie theater, and in the hallway outside of Paul’s apartment. Connie usually had on a dress or skirt when she was meeting Paul, which meant that only a few articles of clothing had to be rearranged. Connie was shown nude in the bathtub once. She was shown in various stages of undress a few times. People who don’t like to see movies with nudity or sex scenes should avoid seeing this movie.

The home life of Edward and Connie was shown at different times throughout Unfaithful. I thought that added to the realism of the movie. One thing I noticed was that when Connie was doing things around the house, she wasn’t dressed up with perfect hair and makeup like most women in movies and tv shows are. She wore normal, everyday clothes around the house, though one time she was wearing the dress she wore into town when she was fixing dinner. She was even barefoot in some scenes. When she had things to do in town, then she fixed her hair and makeup, and even dressed up sometimes. That seemed more realistic to me than women who walk around cleaning the house in a dress and heels. However, I did wonder why Connie chose to wear a dress and heels to run her errands at the beginning of the movie, especially since she knew how windy it was out. Once she started having the affair, she usually had on a skirt or dress when she went to Paul.

The acting in Unfaithful was very good. Diane Lane was wonderful as Connie. She expressed so many emotions throughout the movie from joy to guilt. You could tell what she was feeling just by the expression on her face. That was really apparent in the scene when she was on the train remembering having sex with Paul for the first time. That was a rather simple scene, but it was very powerful. Lane went through a wide range of emotions in a short time. She was very believable as a woman feeling guilt for having an affair but unable to stop at the same time. Diane Lane received a well deserved Golden Globe nomination for her work in Unfaithful.

Richard Gere seemed to be a bit stiff at the beginning of Unfaithful, but he didn’t have too much to do then. His role grew later in the movie and he was no longer stiff. That started to happen once he became suspicious of Connie. He had some very emotional scenes. This was one of his better performances. Olivier Martinez was good too as Paul. Nothing about his performance really stood out to me though. Erik Per Sullivan did a good job as Charlie. He wasn’t annoying like some children can be in movies.

CHARACTERS

Connie Sumner - She was a wife to Edward and mother to Charlie. She did volunteer work for her son’s school. She seemed to be happy with her marriage. She started an affair with a book dealer after a chance meeting. She lied to her husband and snuck around to meet Paul. Connie felt guilty, but she couldn’t stay away from Paul. She was thinking about him most of the time. She started to withdraw from Edward.

Edward Sumner - Connie’s husband. He owned his own business. He spent time with Charlie playing video games with him. He was happy with his life. He was having some problems with work and he had to fire someone. He started to notice that something was bothering Connie. He could tell she was holding something back from him. He discovered that she had lied about where was. He was torn up about what she might be doing, but he wanted to know so he contacted a private investigator.

Charlie Sumner - Connie and Edward’s son. He liked to play video games with his dad. He had to play a bunny in a school play and he didn’t want to be a bunny.

Paul Martel - He was a book dealer in the city. He met Connie when they collided during a wind storm. He was staying in a friend’s apartment. Books were piled everywhere. He seemed interested in Connie and he invited her back to his place. He seemed to push Connie at times in their relationship. He was daring and didn’t seem too concerned that they would be discovered.

DVD

I rented Unfaithful on DVD. The copy I rented was the full screen version. I stood in Blockbuster looking at all of the copies they had in looking for widescreen, but all I could find was full screen. The picture and sound quality was very good. There were several extras on the DVD. I didn’t have enough time to check out everything.

There was a commentary by the director. There was also a commentary with the actors and that one had eleven options. I didn’t get a chance to listen to either one since the movie had to go back. I’m not sure if the actor’s commentary would run through the whole movie, or if it was only during certain scenes since there were options listed with it.

Deleted Scenes - There were eleven deleted scenes. Some of the scenes were actually longer or slightly different versions of scenes that were in the final version of the movie. There was an option to listen to a commentary by the director while the scenes played. One of the scenes was an alternate ending.

An Affair to Remember - On the Set of Unfaithful
This included interviews with the cast and crew talking about the movie. Some actual scenes from the movie were shown while someone was talking. At other times, there was footage playing that showed the filming of some scenes.

I didn’t get a chance to watch the rest of the extras. I think the rest of the extras were interviews.
Anne Coates on Editing
Charlie Rose Interviews
Conversations with Richard Gere, Diane Lane, and Olivier Martinez
Director’s Script Notes
Theatrical Trailer
Fox Flix - This had a teaser for Dare Devil and a trailer for The Dancer Upstairs

I did enjoy Unfaithful even though it had some flaws. It was a serious movie about a serious subject. Some people may find the subject matter upsetting. People who have experienced an unfaithful spouse may not want to watch the movie. It is worth seeing for Diane Lane’s wonderful performance.





Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age