September 14, 2020
'Unfaithful'
The Ringer's Bill Simmons and the New York Times' Wesley Morris don't make mistakes, there are no mistakes, only things you do, and don't do. We rewatch the romantic drama 'Unfaithful' starring Diane Lane, Richard Gere, and Oliver Martinez.
Cast
Diane Lane as Connie Sumner
Richard Gere as Edward Sumner
Olivier Martinez as Paul Martel
Chad Lowe as Bill Stone
Dominic Chianese as Private Detective
Zeljko Ivanek as Detective
Directed by: Adrian Lyne
Written by: Alvin Sargent, William Broyles Jr.
Notes
- Budget $50 million; made $118 million worldwide.
- Based on Claude Chabrol's 1969 French film 'The 'Unfaithful' Wife'.
- Diane Lane career deep dive: was on the cover of Time magazine as a kid, turned down 'Risky Business', Splash, The Accused, and had to drop out of 'Pretty Woman' due to scheduling.
- Wesley calls Richard Gere 'the greatest movie star who never did anything great' and compares him to Scottie Pippen – 'a necessary ingredient to realize how great other people are'.
- Adrian Lyne shot 5 different endings because of his 'Fatal Attraction' experience; the car ending was reshot only a couple weeks before opening.
- Lyne wanted Gere and Lane to gain weight; Lane refused; Lyne started leaving donuts in Gere's trailer every morning but it didn't work.
- The apartment was filled with so much smoke from machines that the cast needed a doctor on set shooting antibiotics for bronchial infections.
- The Clinton-Lewinsky scandal is cited as effectively ending the erotic thriller genre – 'we got really prudish in '98, then 9/11 happened'.
- Bill's mom is Richard Gere's #1 fan and once approached him at a charity benefit in New Canaan.
Categories
Roger Ebert's review
Quote from Rog's review:
“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.”
Most re-watchable scene
- The train ride scene – Connie's post-affair ride home with flashbacks and all her expressions (Wesley's #1 pick).
- French guy hitting on Connie during the windstorm and getting her up to the apartment.
- Edward kills Paul with the snow globe.
- Connie confronting Edward after finding the snow globe – 'Tell me what you did... Did you hurt him?'
- Connie having lunch with her two friends right after having sex with Paul in the bathroom.
- The ending – sitting at the red light in front of the police station.
What aged the best?
- Early 2000s Soho streetscapes.
- Paul Martel's apartment – Adrian Lyne's smoky atmospheric set design.
- The 'I want you to follow somebody. I want you to follow my wife' trope.
- When Connie finds the PI photos in Edward's jacket at the dry cleaners – the shot of the dry cleaning going around while her world falls apart.
What aged the worst?
- Stilted marriage dialogue – 'Do you love me?' and 'Are you OK?' / 'I'm fine'.
- Pay phones as a huge part of any adultery movie – feels dated now.
- The school play scene as an idyllic plot device.
Casting what-ifs
- Brad Pitt and Ryan Phillippe were offered the role of Paul Martel before it was rewritten as French.
- Jennifer Lopez was offered Diane Lane's role and turned it down; later said 'I want to literally shoot my toe off' when Lane got nominated.
- Adrian Lyne cast Lane after seeing A Walk on the Moon.
Over-acting award
Chad Lowe – 'What about your family, Edward? Why don't you take a look at your own fucking family, Ed?'
Best "that guy"
- Kate Burton – Wesley's pick for winner.
- Zeljko Ivanek (the detective) – was in Oz, 'School Ties', a million TV shows.
- Margaret Colin – was on The West Wing.
- Dominic Chianese – Uncle Junior from The Sopranos.
Apex Mountain
- Diane Lane: Yes, 100% – her Oscar nomination for this film.
- Olivier Martinez: Yeah, probably – unless you count when he beat up Halle Berry's boyfriend.
- Reading Braille as foreplay: Yes – 'can't remember seeing Braille used as foreplay before'.
- Killing someone with a snow globe: Yes.
Picking nits
- Nobody notices Richard Gere carrying a body in a rug out of a NYC apartment (Bill's mom's #1 nitpick).
- Gere meticulously cleans the apartment for 19 hours but leaves the PI photos in his jacket pocket.
- Connie giving Paul the snow globe – a gift from her husband.
- Gere only wipes one glass for fingerprints instead of doing a full sweep.
- Pushing a 200 lb body upstairs when the elevator breaks.
(Probably) unanswerable questions
- Did Paul deserve to die?
- Is Richard Gere a good actor? (Consensus: 'conditionally good').
- Where would you dump a body?
- What happened to the Sumners next? Bill thinks divorced within two years; Wesley thinks Edward turns himself in.
Sequel, prequel, prestige TV or untouchable?
- Bill thinks it would be a very good Netflix show.
- Wesley counters: 'Isn't that show called The Affair?' Bill defends Season 1 as really good.
- The Affair was actually greenlit because 'Unfaithful' had a 15-year run on cable channels.
Who won the movie?
Diane Lane – 'won the movie and my heart'.