Unfaithful

The first half of Unfaithful is excellent. Adrian Lyne is a brilliant psychologist and he fantastically captures the development of a married woman who is torn by unbridled sexual passion and a guilty conscience because of her infidelity and “hurting the people she loves”. The scene on a train with the sex flashbacks is absolutely fantastic in this respect. And in the bathtub scene, the director superbly captures the alienation that the protagonist feels in relation to her husband. I devoured this excellent first half, shot in Lyne’s typically hypnotic style, with bated breath. In the second half of the film, however, the screenplay devolves into cheap, half-baked, self-parodying thriller clichés. (10/07/2002)

As has already been mentioned, there have been plenty of better movies made about infidelity. But none of them (of the ones I've seen so far) have better described the feelings of an unfaithful woman. I really had a crazy time with her for the first hour. And if I had nothing else to praise, I have to praise Diane Lane's performance. It's a huge shame that the second half lost its purpose and turned out the way it did. It's almost like two different movies. 3 stars. (24/08/2012)

Adrian Lyne always excelled in portraying intimacy and emotional connections, whether it be within families or romantic couples. Here, he again confirms his strength and weakness – that is, direction as such. The film is very nondescript and the actors are not always entirely convincing, the piano music is fantastic, giving many scenes the appropriate power and uniqueness. The eroticism is a bit out of place, but it wouldn't be Lyne if he didn't spice things up somehow. Similarly, the motive of Connie (Diane Lane) is somewhat off because in reality, this could probably happen only very rarely, given the background and financial situation she was in. However, anything is possible in a movie, and in this case, the result is just average. (29/05/2007)