There is no actress working in motion pictures whose beauty is more basic, more unadorned, than that of Diane Lane.
As she has entered her late 30s, the lines around her eyes and lips have made her even more complex, more real to us so that Lane now seems like the very embodiment of introspective femininity.
In “Unfaithful,” she takes this ball and runs with it, playing to perfection a conflicted suburban wife who is reluctantly drawn into an affair with a younger man. Unfortunately, she also runs circles around the rest of the picture, which is sluggish, predictable and altogether oppressive.
Even if we are to believe that a woman would cheat on Richard Gere for the Euro-trash book dealer (Oliver Martinez) the protagonist falls for – and Lane almost convinces us of this – much of the melodrama in “Unfaithful” is so overripe as to elicit laughter even during what are supposed to be the movie’s heaviest scenes.
The film uses metaphor with the subtlety of a bricklayer, imposes upon the audience some of the silliest sex scenes in memory and provides a confrontation between Gere and his wife’s lover that is unbelievable, even by the standards of soap opera. To top things off, there’s even a ridiculous visual reference to “Citizen Kane” that gets run into the ground.
All of the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of director Adrian Lyne. Just as with “Fatal Attraction” (1997) and “Indecent Proposal” (1992), the director’s two highest-grossing pictures, “Unfaithful” makes an unseemly play for the hearts of middle class audiences by fetishizing upper-middle class infidelity.
Lyne, who somehow has gotten a reputation as a sophisticated storyteller, would probably defend his work by claiming that he’s exploring important interpersonal and marital issues. Still, the director isn’t so high-minded that he can resist shooting Lane’s bare tush from about 40 different angles.
Sometimes Hollywood has success in remaking bad movies that were based on promising ideas by using a new cast, a new spin, a fresh approach. “Unfaithful” could be remade into a good movie without nearly so much fuss, combining the same lead actress, the same subject and the same inclimate setting with a new guiding hand. Hmmm … if only Ingmar Bergman were willing to come out of retirement.
