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Unfaithful
EMAILPRINT20th Century Fox Film Corporation

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 34 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 39 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Alvin Sargent
William Broyles Jr.
Claude Chabrol (film La Femme Infidele)
Directed by: Adrian Lyne
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 10, 2002
DVD: December 17, 2002
Running Time: 124 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for sexuality, language and a scene of violence
Starring Diane Lane, Erik Per Sullivan, Richard Gere, Olivier Martinez, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Michelle Monaghan, Chad Lowe, and Joseph Badalucco Jr.
An erotic thriller about the body language of guilt, centering on a couple living in the New York City suburbs whose marriage goes dangerously awry when the wife indulges in an adulterous fling. (20th Century Fox)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Fatal Attraction Flashdance Indecent Proposal Jacob's Ladder Lolita Nine 1/2 Weeks
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
It's that rare kind of movie that comes along only a handful of times each year -- gut-level entertainment that's oddly profound.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Sensational sex-and-its-consequences melodrama.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Lane is a force of nature. Her slow-burning, fiercely erotic performance charges the movie.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Meticulously crafted and beautifully performed.
USA Today Mike Clark
Unfaithful doesn't push the melodrama the way "Attraction" did, but it lingers in the mind as much.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
All the accolades Lyne got for "Fatal Attraction" -- and didn't really merit -- he deserves here.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
The movie doesn't stoop to cheap psychoanalysis and must be commended for a bravely ambiguous ending. But most of the credit goes to Lane, who is simply extraordinary as a woman whose body is at war with her conscience.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Like Lyne's other heavy-breathers, this one has glossy production values, a relentlessly somber mood and its share of sexual gymnastics. But it's atypical and unique in the way it builds a volcano waiting to erupt with nail-biting anticipation and sympathy for all three characters.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
This refitting of Claude Chabrol's 1968 classic "La Femme Infidele" is less concerned with suspense and dramatic fireworks than is the usual American "erotic thriller," and much more devoted to nuances and the minutiae of how men and women behave, pretend and lie in duplicitous situations.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Charles Taylor
It's one of the fullest portrayals of sexual desire and pleasure and fear I've ever seen in a movie.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
Unfaithful shows what a powerful, sexy, smart filmmaker Lyne can be. Its a shame he substitutes the mechanics of suspense for the real suspense of what goes on between a man and a woman, a husband and a wife.
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Lyne's excesses are usually the kind of thing I love to hate, but Unfaithful found me pretty much following along in step with his rhythms and dramatic choices.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
American movies are generally so skittish about sexuality that Adrian Lyne's appetite --and aptitude -- for exploring it in Unfaithful is a relief.
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
That's what's intriguing about the film: Instead of pumping up the plot with recycled manufactured thrills, it's content to contemplate two reasonably sane adults who get themselves into an almost insoluble dilemma.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
Has its cheesy moments but it's bolstered by interesting performances and a final scene not typical of a mainstream movie. Though no "Fatal Attraction," Unfaithful nevertheless is an interesting and worthy film.
The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Trashy enough to envelop its sex scenes in aerobicized glamour (a Lyne trademark), so the fact that it takes itself so seriously almost counts as a daring move.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
The irony is, it's his vulgarity, this mixture of the gaudy and the glossy, that distinguishes Lyne, that makes his work identifiable and, when the story's right, such a guilty pleasure.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Ms. Lane has the role of her career in Connie, and her indelible (and ultimately sympathetic) performance is both archetypal and minutely detailed.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Rick Kisonak
Not bad for a mainstream suspensefest. Gere's good, Lane, as I said, is amazing in places and Lyne does some of his most assured work in years.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Though it is difficult to take Unfaithful as seriously as it takes itself, on its own terms it's quite well done.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
The good points about Unfaithful can't overcome the movie's eventual downward spiral.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Despite some fine, nuanced acting (it's Lane's movie, to be sure), Unfaithful doesn't get much deeper than a romance novel.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Since life's infidelities have a way of ending on a messy note, it becomes art's responsibility to impose order upon the mess, to give it an aesthetically convincing shape. And that's exactly where Lyne falls short.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Despite the Gallic source material, what we truly have in Unfaithful is a tasteful, adult-contemporary ''Fatal Attraction'' redux, right down to the mister's Soho address and the happy family tucked away in the New York hinterlands.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Doesn't reflect anyone's love or hatred for anything, just a lot of anxiety about test marketing, which means it takes a nosedive when it goes shopping for an ending.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
If ever a movie cried out to be French, it's this one, and not just because it's a remake of Claude Chabrol's notoriously icy La Femme Infidele (1968).
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Though it comes from a director whose résumé includes "Flashdance" and "9 ½ weeks," these smoke-filled interludes are less erotic than today's average car commercial.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jessica Winter
Casual familiarity with Lyne's oeuvre is all you need to predict the major plot contortion.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
At what point in the movie is it too late to ask for your money back?
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Heavy-handed symbolism permeates the picture, down to the leading lady's name.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
In the end, Unfaithful leaves you dispirited and grumpy: All that money spent, all that talent wasted, all that time gone forever, and for what? It's an ill movie that bloweth no man to good.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Luke Y. Thompson
Even those looking to catch a few Diane Lane tit shots will be so exhausted by the endless nothingness between each one that it won't be worth it.
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.4 (out of 10) based on 39 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Ashley B. gave it a 0:
Immoral, Pure filth, these are the types of movies that make society even more negative, leaves you spiritualess, and gives a very uneasy feeling about life today. Avoid watching this smut should put this crap back with adult videos only for its lack morals. I pity those that actually do live this kind of life with their spouse and I feel deep sorrow for any spouse that has to live through a unfaithful partner.
Tyler A. gave it a 0:
Horrible, movies like this just protray and encourage more cheating and unloyalness towards two people who are married. Dont people see this enough in real life to just emphasize lust more in real life(A note to all stay faithful to the one you chose, because your not just holding your heart but theirs as well.) Poor movie need to find something more positive to be making movies about, not sex lust, unfaithfulness, and many other things that just encourage what already hurts many every day in real life. God Bless all.
JCE gave it a 5:
[***SPOILERS***] Diane looks good for an old lady...two problems...the ending was unnecessary...most husbands would go to counselling...some would leave....and none would turn to murder...and I kept expecting Malcolm in the Middle to show up... Bottom Line: Lane can act, Gere can't, the French are cool and the case of Malcolm should stay there (not that he was bad...it's just a jerk to the mind to see him).
Chris W. gave it an 8:
Diane Lane conveys superbly the inner conflict and anguish between passion and fidelity. Richard Gere the pain of an unfaithful partner. The murder and ending were not necessary, though understandable for the box office. Tragedy lies in the brokenness of Gere, which he conveys reasonably well. Mopre satisfying by a long way than 'Fatal Attraction'
Pat C. gave it a 7:
Diane Lane can act. Richard Gere can't, not really. But he wasn't mis-cast. No wonder her marriage bored her. Consequences of adultery without the melodrama, but in the end resorts to the body bag to tie up loose ends. Still, Lane should have got the Oscar. Spectacular. Loved her performance, hated the rest of the movie.
Yoon C. gave it a 6:
Tiltillating largely because of Diane Lane's nervous, repressed sexuality shed like a snake's skin in an erotically charged scene, it soon degenerates into Adrine's Lyne's typical empty sexercise. The french lover is simply le hunk as well as le intellectual(as all French are, I guess) and Gere again plays an amiable character, which he seems to alternate with cynical hipsterish roles.
Farmer Ted gave it a 10:
I tell you, I tell you boy that lady sure was purdy. I liked all the action. Made me feel like a boy of only 5. Boy I don't need Viagra anymore... I love this movie I went and took me grandson and his wife to go see it. I sure did not see them very much. they were both gone to the bathroom so much. and when they came back they were wearing each other's clothing. Oh those silly kids.
