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The sex scenes are masterful, but the plot and character development in Unfaithful leave something to be desired.
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 9, 2002
If you're looking for Mr. Goodbar in the new film Unfaithful, it isn't Richard Gere. His role as Edward Sumner, a husband who's all work while his wife plays around, shouldn't allow it. Yet there's something stronger than character motivation for actors like Gere, and that's ego. He won't permit himself to appear incapable of holding on to a woman, one of several miscalculations in Adrian Lyne's steamy melodrama.
Unfaithful is no more than an extended version of Lyne's cable TV titillation Red Shoe Diaries with celebrity moaners and French twists, based on a 1969 film by Claude Chabrol. Lyne is an expert stager of erotic impulses, proved by 91/2 Weeks and the most believable aspects of Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal. But he has difficulties guiding actors with their clothes on, especially Gere, who can't -- or won't -- avoid being sexier than necessary.
For all of the intimacies in Unfaithful, a key sex scene is missing. There needs to be some reason why Edward's wife, Constance (Diane Lane), latches onto hunky Paul Martel (Olivier Martinez) for an affair. Under these circumstances, that reason should be sexual dissatisfaction at home. But we never get an inkling of Edward's inability to satisfy Constance (although Gere does get a candlelit bathtub scene, raising the question of what's wrong with having Richard Gere in your tub). Give us one scene of Edward's impotence or lack of interest and we'll believe Constance's abrupt infidelity. Without it, she comes across as self-centered and slutty, neglecting their son, never sympathetic.
Edward has a meek streak, that's all. Somebody has to make money for Constance's shopping trips and lunch dates. But Gere, with his sculpted hair and bedroom smile, has trouble conveying that, improving only when the role takes a late turn into matrimonial angst and anger. Lane, on the other hand, jumps into her hot-blooded role with gusto, sexily coaxing the situation along and occasionally making Constance seem conflicted, as in one well-tuned scene on a commuter train when she doesn't know whether to laugh or cry about what she has done.
Martinez's problem with his role is the opposite of Gere's. The French heartthrob (The Horseman of the Roof) certainly has the physical attributes to make Constance pay attention, yet he seems posed among all the books Paul collects, a brute among literature he doesn't understand. Fortunately, Paul is more action than talk, a suitable blowup doll for Lyne's bump-and-grind cinema.
The trysts are effectively erotic thanks mainly to Lane's shameless sexuality, which must overcome some of director Lyne's basest instincts. Are Constance's skinned knees really enough of a turn-on that ice packs can replace the produce-as-sex-toys of 91/2 Weeks? If she and Paul are going to mash in a public restroom, couldn't they at least choose a cleaner one? Is one of their encounters passionate or date rape? Choose the kinkiest answers and that's what Lyne delivers.
Unfaithful makes its bed early, then rolls around in it for over an hour until the thriller aspect -- a sudden burst of violence -- creates an entirely different, duller movie. Viewers will identify at least three occasions in the final reel when the film should end before it does. After all the heavy breathing preceding it, the conclusion seems anticlimactic, so to speak.
Grade: C-plus
Director: Adrian Lyne
Cast: Richard Gere, Diane Lane, Olivier Martinez, Erik Per Sullivan, Chad Lowe
Screenplay: Alvin Sargent, William Broyles Jr., based on Claude Chabrol's film La Femme Infidele
Rating: R; sexual situations, nudity, profanity, violence
Running time: 120 min.