UNFAITHFUL: Blu-ray (20th Century Fox 2002) Fox Home Video

Attempting to do for wayward housewives what his Fatal Attraction (1987) did for disloyal husbands – scare them sh%*less – director, Adrian Lyne’s Unfaithful (2002) needlessly re-purposes the same story, almost verbatim; albeit, in reverse and with far less effectiveness.  Chief in the picture’s failures are the casting of Richard Gere and Diane Lane as the happily/unhappily marrieds – or rather, dutiful ‘what me worry’ hubby, Edward Sumner, and his bored as a gord house wife, Connie. If the story is unoriginal – and it is – then, it nevertheless retains a faint whiff of inspiration compared to the tepid performances given by Gere and Lane. Honestly, could they be any more distant, dull and thoroughly uninterested with each other?!? Unfaithful is an ellipsis in Lyne’s career; made from hunger – not Lyne’s, but the studio’s desire to recreate the fatalist ‘magic’ of that other ‘attraction’ gone wrong; this time, to suggest the ramifications of a woman cheating on a man are farther reaching and more destructive than the other way around. If one recalls, at the end of Fatal Attraction, the family unit, initially fractured after the husband wanders off with an increasingly psychotic sex partner, is restored – perhaps, not happily ever after – though, nonetheless, brought into focus as the more worthwhile ‘relationship’ to salvage after his whack job has brutally attacked the ‘innocent’ wife, and paid for her lust with her life (and that of her unborn child). Nothing nearly as melodramatic in this movie.

In Unfaithful, Connie’s dalliances with goony art-house stud, Paul Martel (Olivier Martinez) end in a fitful moment of jealous rage and murder; Ed, crushing Paul’s skull with a glass orb. From this full-on moment of chest-thumping insanity, the picture steadily digresses into a sort of lifeless contemplation on the sanctity of marriage and a man’s right to protect that which is his. In some ways, Unfaithful is a far more truthful movie about what can happen when love between two people cools and only one of them is deeply aware of it. That said, unearthing the reasons why any sane woman should stray from a husband who, apart from being dull as paint, is otherwise a saint in their vows, gets stale pretty fast; Alvin Sargent and William Broyles Jr.’s screenplay, based on Claude Chabrol’s The Unfaithful Wife, meandering through a convoluted backdrop of false starts as Ed gets closer and closer to the truth, and then, becoming thoroughly mired in the machinations of a basically good man, twice tortured; first, by the realization his wife is whoring around behind his back, and second, in the knowledge he has killed to preserve a relationship, arguably, not worth saving, and, likely to get away with his crime of passion, if never to rid himself of the all-consuming guilt for having taken the ultimate step to put a period to his wife’s affair.

Our story begins inside the idyllic country home of Ed and Connie Sumner (Diane Lane), shared with their son, Charlie (Erik Per Sullivan) in Westchester, New York. Life is perfect, pastoral and unimpeded by the vigor and pitfalls that can railroad a happy home. There is virtually nothing between these walls that cannot be massaged with just a little TLC. And by all accounts, the Sumners certainly seem to have it all; financial success, fidelity to each other, and, the ability to travel and mix in the right circles of affluent society. Everything is in place: except the one essential Connie needs more than anything else – passion. This, or rather its thorough lack, proves everything, but especially after Connie is casually introduced to struggling artist and book seller, Paul Martel. Before long, Connie and Paul have migrated from chatting up about first editions and tenderizing bruised knees, to feeling each other’s unmentionables for weekly extracurricular activity at Paul’s Bohemian apartment. Aside: what is it about these penniless guys, all mop-haired and stubbly, that can make a respectable woman suddenly throw herself into a lather, writhing in passion with her eyes ricocheting in the back of her head? But I digress.

At first, Ed suspects nothing and is thoroughly devastated when private investigator, Frank Wilson (Dominic Chianese), provides some glossies of Connie and Paul together. Forgetting to pick Charlie up from school, Connie suddenly realizes she can no longer carry on the affair. Too much is at stake. Electing to take the mature route, Connie instead spies Paul casually strolling with another woman. This leads to a very public confrontation, but then another predictable fall from grace inside his building. Afterward, Connie nearly bumps into Ed as she is leaving. Ed confronts Paul and is deeply wounded to discover the priceless snow globe he gave Connie as an anniversary present has since been gifted to her lover instead. Ed snaps and fractures Paul's skull with the snow globe, killing him instantly. Cleaning up the evidence, Ed hears Connie leave a message for Paul, emphatically insisting their affair is over. Erasing the evidence, Ed dumps Paul’s bloody remains in a landfill. Alas, his conscience will not rest. NYPD detectives arrive at the Sumner home, explaining how Paul's estranged wife has since reported him missing. Connie feigns only knowing Paul socially. But then, Paul’s body is discovered and focus zeros in on Connie as the prime suspect. Connie lies about only knowing Paul from a fundraiser, a story corroborated by Ed. Red flag #1. Later, Connie discovers the photos given to Paul by Frank and realizes he knew of her affair. Red flag #2. Worse, Connie finds the snow globe she gave to Paul, newly returned to their collection. Red flag #3. Now, Connie knows the truth. Ed killed Paul. Connie and Ed quarrel. However, a few days later, Connie discovers a hidden compartment in the snow globe, containing a photo of her, Ed and Charlie with a loving inscription she never knew, from Ed for their anniversary.  Consumed with guilt, Connie destroys the photos of her and Paul. Ed confides he cannot go on. He will turn himself in for Paul’s murder. Only now, Connie objects, pleading with Ed to find a way for them to move on as a family, beginning their ‘normal’ lives anew. The movie ends with the couple quietly seated next to one another in their car, engine running, parked outside the police station.

There is little to doubt Adrian Lyne is going for some ‘grand tragedy’ in these penultimate moments of shock and dismay. Indeed, Unfaithful’s ambiguous ending leaves more questions than answers to the shocking revelation this couple might choose to put the affair and murder behind them as though it were ‘yesterday’s bad headlines.’ The moral ambiguity presented herein is extremely problematic. Clearly, Ed and Connie are thinking about their son, and what future he must face should Ed go to prison and Connie be branded a wanton woman in this cloistered community where everyone knows everyone’s business. But the marriage – such as it is – or was – or even remains after the dust has cleared – is not worth saving. Both Ed and Connie instinctively know they have come to the end of the line, despite having seemingly gotten away with their respective ‘crimes’.  The chief problem here is our story lacks any sympathetic characters. The screenplay never bothers to illustrate any real tensions in the Sumner marriage, or even offer a single plausible reason why Connie should willfully destroy her own perfectly adequate union for straight sex. If Paul had endeavored to blackmail Connie for money, or if Ed had been a bad lot, masking an aberration, the picture would have been on firmer footing, allowing the audience to take a side in this badly bungled affair du Coeur. The point Lyne is perhaps trying to make is that relationships – real, as opposed to ‘reel’ – have no defined edges between right and wrong; no ‘one’ moment of disillusionment on which the entire future happiness pivots. Fair enough. But Unfaithful fails to provide us with anything more meaningful than its “sh@# happens’ philosophy on imperfect life. That can make a lot of sense in life. But it rarely satisfies us at the movies!

Neither Lane nor Martinez were particularly comfortable with Lyne’s obsession to show as much skin as possible during their various sex scenes.  And, to some extent, their awkwardness shows through the finished film. If Ed and Connie’s marriage is passionless, then the sex scenes between Connie and Paul are little more than illustrative of the mechanics of the act itself.  Arguably, a movie is in trouble when no viable ending is immediately evident to its director. Lyne shot no less than 5 totally different endings to Unfaithful. Of these, Lyne chose the aforementioned ambiguous finale. 2oth Century-Fox balked, as it neither exonerated nor fully condemned the characters for their past indiscretions. No denouement – no box office? Perhaps.  However, after negative reactions from preview audiences to Fox’s revised ending, Lyne was allowed to reinstate his original in its stead. Unfaithful went into theaters and easily doubled its $50 million outlay – mostly on Lyne’s drawing power and Fox’s heavy promotion of the picture as something of a companion piece to Fatal Attraction.

Unfaithful’s reissue on Blu-ray exhibits a passable 1080p transfer, ‘faithfully’ to adhere to Lyne's muted palette. Skin tones are distinct and natural in appearance. Shadow depth and contrast are exquisite. There are no hints of edge enhancement, and only a fleeting hint of age-related artifacts.  We get a 5.1 DTS audio that compliments this mostly dialogue-driven picture with subtle use of sides and rear channels during the few aggressive moments. Extras have all been ported over from the original DVD release and include Lyne’s audio commentary (which, frankly, is a snore). We also get another commentary from Lane and Martinez (actually, almost ‘all’ Lane and a bit of Martinez, who is content to hang back and let her do all the talking). We also get nearly 20 min. of deleted scenes with Lyne’s optional commentary, 18 mins. of a Charlie Rose interview with Lane, Gere and Lyne, and then the press and promo junkets, billed as ‘Conversations with…, separately to feature Gere, Lane, Martinez and finally Anne V. Coates, who edited the picture. Finally, there is a ‘director’s notes’ option, that allows us to sample specific scenes with script pages comparatively shown. There is also a theatrical trailer. Bottom line: Unfaithful is a weak-kneed successor to Fatal Attraction.  Thematically, Unfaithful explores a lot of the same content, albeit from a totally different perspective. The switch is not monumental enough to make the movie click as it should. While the Blu-ray bests the DVD, Unfaithful is not really worth all that much of your time. Pass and be glad that you did.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

2

VIDEO/AUDIO

4

EXTRAS

3