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Unfaithful

There's a scene in "Unfaithful" in which the heroine, Connie Sumner, drives recklessly through the city streets, a bag of oranges spilling in the back seat of her vehicle. At first I thought one of the oranges would roll under her brake pedal and cause a wreck. When that didn't happen, I thought there might be some symbolism to the shot, as if we were meant to realize that Connie's life was running out of control like so much fresh produce rolling on the floorboard of an SUV. Maybe, or maybe it was pointless, like everything else in the film. ***

"Unfaithful" is the latest Adrian Lyne flick to hit the big screen (and now DVD), and it isn't any better than or even as good as any of his previous efforts. Unlike "Indecent Proposal", which explored basic consequences of an unusual situation, or "Fatal Attraction", which explored unusual consequences of a basic situation, "Unfaithful" is basic all the way around: woman has affair, husband begins to suspect. There's nothing here that hasn't been done a hundred times before and a hundred times better. ***

Part of the problem is that we never really have a reason to make an emotional investment in the characters. Connie loves her family, true, but we don't really get to know her, and as a result, we never understand why she would fall for the suave Frenchman she literally bumps into on the street. Nor do we see enough of her husband to really empathize with him. We pity him, but that's a much less intersting emotion. Once the affair begins, Connie's days are filled with sex and her nights are filled with the occasional fear that she will be discovered and the nagging sense that what she's doing is wrong. Again, though, we don't understand why she began the affair or why she keeps it going. The whole thing seems to be based on sex, hardly making her a sympathetic character. ***

Another problem is the direction. Adrian Lyne seems desperate to infuse the film with meaning, but he never succeeds. More than half the scenes feel completely pointless. The son, for example, has no significant role in the film whatsoever, yet his screen time rivals that of the lover. It may be important for us to see the innocent victims here, but in an art form in which every frame of film has to justify its existence, Lyne bogs the proceedings down with entire scenes that do nothing to expand the plot or the characters. Some may defend it by pointing to the realism of the scenes, but as Tom Clancy once said, real life is boring. If realism is indeed what Lyne was striving to achieve, I guess he succeeded. ***

What Lyne does well is sex, and this film is full of it. I didn't realize I was going to be seeing a porno movie when I sat down to watch this, but with the basic plot and extremely explicit sexuality, I would have to say "Unfaithful" qualifies as one. Various positions, various locations, it's all here, and it's surprisingly graphic for a major motion picture, so be warned if you find such things offensive. ***

The movie isn't all bad, though. Diane Lane's performance is excellent, especially in the train scene following her first illicit encounter. It's also nice to see Richard Gere playing a more insecure character than his gigolo persona. There's chemistry in all the scenes, and every relationship seems believable (even if we never fully understand the affair). Really, the only things that are truly awful about the film are the script and the direction, but those deficiencies are far too big for the cast to overcome. What we are left with is a well-acted movie that pushes the limits of what is permissible in an "R"-rated film but fails to expand any horizons. --

The image is strong, with nice hues and good saturation, although this isn't a very colorful movie to begin with. Shadow detail perhaps isn't the best, but part of the problem lies in the direction, as dark colors (like blue and brown) in shadow tend to run together anyway. I did notice at least two frames in which there was considerable artifacting. ***

The sound is crisp and clear with understandable dialogue throughout and good font-end separation. There wasn't an exceptionally large range of frequencies reproduced, but considering the vast majority of the sound is dialogue and mellow music, that was rarely noticeable. As for the 5.1, the LFE is nonexistent, and the rear channels hardly receive anything other than music, and even then it is usually only basic reverb. The disc sounds better than a television show on digital cable or satellite but not by much. --

In the featurette "An Affair to Remember: On the Set of 'Unfaithful'" Adrian Lyne describes various elements that went into the production of the film. Most of what's here is covered in the other features--most notably Lyne's commentary--but here we actually get to see footage of such events as the filming of the wind scene where in other features people only talk about it. *** There are several deleted scenes, available with or without commentary. None of the scenes are any better or worse than the ones left in the movie, and none of them really offer any more insight into the plot or the characters. It should be noted that one scene is an "alternate ending" and is touted as such in various places, but it really isn't much more than an alternate edit of the same ending. ***

"The Charlie Rose Show" interview with Richard Gere, Diane Lane, and Adrian Lyne is a nice piece, consisting of a light interview with easy banter and a couple of film clips. Gere, Lane, and Lyne talk about how the movie came to be and how they decided on certain elements of certain scenes. Some of the information is repeated from other bonus features, but on the whole it's enjoyable with some perhaps unintentionally amusing moments. ***

In another interview, Anne Coates gives her views on editing and how she applied that to "Unfaithful". It isn't often that we get an interview with an editor, and there's a reason for that: while it may be important and even essential, the process of editing is a boring one to an on-looker. This interview has several moments that you may be using the remote to see how much time is left, but it does have its peaks if you are interested in this sort of thing, and she does offer a few insights that shed light on some things only mentioned elsewhere on the disc. ***

We also are treated to an interview with each major cast member. There's a good chance that these interviews will only be of interest to fans, as the average viewer may not be interested in how Diana Lane or Olivier Martinez started their careers or what Richard Gere thinks is the best way to compose a scene. But there's an equal chance that these interviews will win new fans for the stars, and for that reason they are at least worth a look. ***

The last major feature of the disc is something I was glad to see. It is a copy of selected portions of the script with director's notes in the margin. It's not so much that I was eager to see the script, but I'm glad that they put this as an interactive feature of the disc and not as DVD ROM content. So for anyone who's interested, there are a few scenes in which you can see how the screenplay looked before it was actually filmed. Be aware, though, that while this is touted as "script notes," the actual hand-written notations are minimal. ***

Theatrical trailers for "Unfaithful" and "The Dancer Upstairs" and a teaser trailer for "Daredevil" round out the offerings on the disc.