Unfaithful

Unfaithful; drama, USA, 2002; D: Adrian Lyne, S: Diane Lane, Richard Gere, Olivier Martinez

Connie is a middle-aged, but still attractive woman married to Edward, with whom she has a son. During a storm over Manhattan, Connie injures her knee and French Paul helps her and invites her to his apartment. When she returns to his apartment twice, he seduces her and they start an affair. Edward starts doubting that Connie has an affair so he hires a detective who confirms it. Connie ends the affair, but Edward kills Paul, yet does not get punished.

Adrian Lyne, the director with a sense for the erotic, decided to shoot a remake of the French classic "An Unfaithful Wife" by Chabrol, probably because the sole story reminds a little bit of his most critically acclaimed film, "Fatal Attraction", except that this time the affair is led by a woman. "Unfaithful" is a good, elegant little film, with aesthetic images, but thin plot that is almost dismantled to its core. The exposition nicely shows the break-up of everyday boredom of the heroine Connie with the sequence of a storm that knocks her over, right into the arms of Paul. Lyne filled the plot with an abundance of little details (Connie loses a bottle in the toilet bowl so she has to take out with her hand; Paul uses a marker to draw a butterfly over her genitals) yet it did not entirely avoid cliches and an occasional kitsch. The highlight is the inspiring (and refreshingly natural) performance by Diane Lane, who was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Oscar.

Grade:++