Reel Critics

Jim Erwin

Can a normal, intelligent person, with an attractive, loving partner

and a generally good life, be tempted into infidelity? In “Unfaithful,”

Connie Sumner (Diane Lane) is blown into the arms of a handsome, athletic

Frenchman (Paul Martel). She knows what she’s doing is wrong, she feels

tremendous regret, and yet she goes back to him again and again. She

loves her husband (Richard Gere) very much. She has a child (Erik Per

Sullivan) whom she adores. So, what would make her endanger everything

important in her life?

The great thing about “Unfaithful” is that the movie never spoon-feeds

you the answer to this question. The story is told by the actions of the

characters and leaves us to connect the dots.

“Unfaithful” is pretty steamy, in a very soft R sort of way. It isn’t

nearly as explicit as “9 1/2 Weeks,” also directed by Adrian Lyne. The

love scenes show what Connie finds sexually exciting, and put her affair

in context, without overpowering how the adultery makes her feel about

herself. The first love scene is seen through Connie’s memories. She

relives each caress while riding the commuter train. As she gets aroused,

she’s simultaneously overwhelmed by feelings of remorse. She hates what

she’s feeling, but she loves how it feels.

At times Lyne gets a little too hung up in symbols, and lets the story

become contrived, but he is great at crafting movies where the subtext

tells everything about the characters. He has always been good at using

sexuality to control the mood of a story. The overall look of the film is

very subdued, and helps focus the energy on the internal conflicts within

Diane Lane and Richard Gere.

This is a good date flick. The ambiguity in the story leaves a lot of

room for discussing why the characters behaved as they did, and whether

your wife/girlfriend would sleep with Paul Martel. “Unfaithful” isn’t

black and white Ingmar Bergman realism by any stretch of the imagination,

but it’s a lot more entertaining than depressed Swedes talking with

subtitles.

* JIM ERWIN, 40, is a technical writer and computer trainer.