The Popkorn Junkie :: Unfaithful

"Unfaithful" is a good, solid thriller that delivers the goods and then some. With a film like this, there's two basic requirements in making it tick: it's intriguing and doesn't play out like a soap opera. Well, this movie fulfills both of those qualities.

The story centers on a peaceful suburban family, consisting of bored working girl Connie Sumner (Diane Lane), her workaholic husband Edward (Richard Gere) and their 8-year-old son Charlie (Erik Sullivan). One day Connie gets caught in the middle of a violent windstorm, while walking around Manhattan. She, literally, bumps into a dashing French book collector, Paul Bartel (Olivier Martinez). The wind knocks her to the ground, causing her to scrape her knees. Paul offers her to come up to his apartment, so she can clean her wounds. You can pretty much guess what happens next.

The story is tight and engrossing, grabbing your interest and never letting go, but the actors also make it work. The characters are well-written, and the way the actors play them out is totally credible. Every character has both sympathetic and unsympathetic qualities, even Martinez's character. He could've easily been written as a lowlife scumbag with a pretty face. But even he isn't portrayed on a totally antagonistic level.

Diane Lane is a talented actress, who's beautiful to look at, and she gives her most powerful performance up-to-date. Though Richard Gere receives star billing, Lane carries the film. She wonderfully demonstrates every subtle nuance of her conflicted character. Even when she doesn't say a word, you know exactly how she's feeling. Her silent scenes are more powerful than her dialogue scenes. Newcomer Olivier Martinez is perfectly cast and wonderfully charismatic. I swear, even I felt charmed by his presence at times. He shows great potential as an up-and-coming actor, and can probably become the next Antonio Banderas. As for Richard Gere, I really hope this movie puts him back on the map. He also delivers a great, multi-faceted performance, and hopefully this movie will succeed at the box office and audiences will forget about all of Gere's recent throwaway roles.

I haven't seen any of Adrian Lyne's previous work, but I hear he's a prestigious director. And now I feel curious about checking out his earlier works. He creates a very interesting rhythm, vividly setting up the tone and atmosphere, all the way from the opening shot.

A well-written script, topnotch performances, fine professional direction--Can you ask for much more? "Unfaithful" is a thriller that thrills, a crowd-pleaser that pleases. I was glad to log onto the IMDB and see all good reviews. Sure, it doesn't look like much in the previews, but as it ironically turns out the movies that look crappy or none-too-appealing in the trailers turn out to be surprisingly good and the ones that look great in the trailers turn out to be very disappointing.

-- Matt ( 3 out of 4 pops )

Talk about this film with other Popkorn Junkies

Other Junkie's opinions.....

Billy Ray ( 1 1/2 out of 4 pops )

Adrian Lyne has always impressed me as a director. He is best known for "Fatal Attraction" and "Indecent Proposal", but his two previous highlights, in my opinion, were the grim and noir "Jacob's Ladder" and the sexually aggressive "9 1/2 Weeks". For some reason, I just couldn't get into "Unfaithful". I am a hardcore Richard Gere fan, and Diane Lane is always top notch, but there was just something about the film that screamed 'boredom'. I am usually the one who likes the mellow and emotional films, especially when they are thrillers. One of the primary flaws of the film was casting Olivier Martinez--a less than terrific actor, whose accent becomes annoying at times, as he tries to play Don Juan in front of Lane. Gere and Lane have nice chemistry, but they are pretty much left to run with the film because director Lyne doesn't really have anything to do. There are no amazing shots, camera angles, or director touches. The cinematography is sub-par and the script could have been handled much better than it was. Adrian Lyne is a normally classy director with his own personal touches, but they were evidently forgotten since his failed attempt to remake the Kubrick classic "Lolita" back in 1997. In the hands of a different director, it might have succeeded. In the hands of the normally impressive Lyne, it achieves little.

Mike ( 2 1/2 out of 4 pops )

I went to this movie not expecting that much. It turned out to be not that great, but not as bad as I had feared it might be. The best part of the film is by far Diane Lane who brilliantly shows us a woman who is battling the desire to have an affair with a much younger man while at the same time agonizing over what she knows deep down is a huge mistake. While the film has some unintentional funny scenes and laughable dialog, it never-the-less held me wanting to know what would happen in the end. It has effective suspense as her husband (Richard Gere) discovers the affair ,but the over-the-top happenings keep the film from becoming a great drama. I've seen much worse but I've also seen much better films in this genre.