Unfaithful (2002 film)

For the song by Rihanna, see Unfaithful (song)

Unfaithful
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Adrian Lyne
Written by	Alvin Sargent and William Broyles Jr. (Screenplay) From La Femme infidèle by Claude Chabrol
Produced by	Adrian Lyne G. Mac Brown
Starring	Diane Lane Richard Gere Olivier Martinez Erik Per Sullivan
Cinematography	Peter Biziou
Edited by	Anne V. Coates
Music by	Jan A.P. Kaczmarek
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release dates	May 10, 2002
Running time	124 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$50,000,000
Box office	$122,000,000 (Worldwide)

Unfaithful is a 2002 movie directed by Adrian Lyne. It was adapted by Alvin Sargent and William Broyles Jr. from the French language film La Femme infidèle by Claude Chabrol. The film is about Constance (Diane Lane) and Edward (Richard Gere), a couple living in the New York City suburbs whose marriage goes dangerously awry when she indulges in an adulterous fling with a mysterious book dealer (Olivier Martinez).

Plot

Constance (Diane Lane) and Edward Sumner (Richard Gere) are a couple living in the New York City suburbs and whose marriage lacks passion. One day, Constance takes a train into Manhattan's Grand Central Station but has difficulty trying to walk through the area in a windstorm. As she chases after taxis, she bumps into a stranger (Olivier Martinez). They both fall but Connie scrapes her knees. The stranger offers to take Constance to his apartment to clean off the scrape. At that moment, an empty cab goes by, but she decides to take the stranger up on his offer, instead of heading back to the train station. He introduces himself as Paul Martel, a Frenchman who buys and sells used books. Constance decides that she feels uncomfortable and tells Paul that she needs to go home. He lets her go but gives her a book of poetry, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, as a gift. Later that night, Constance tells her husband about the incident but does not elaborate on her visit to Paul's apartment.

The next morning, after Edward and their son Charlie leave, she picks up the poetry book. Paul's business card falls out. She then takes the train into Manhattan again and calls him from Grand Central. He invites her over for coffee. When Constance enters Paul's apartment, he asks her to dance. At first, she is hesitant, decides that it is wrong, and then starts to leave the building. But when she has to come back into the apartment because she forgot her coat, Paul grabs her and kisses her, and she responds eagerly.

File:Paulconnie.jpg

Paul (Olivier Martinez) and Constance (Diane Lane) share an intimate moment.

Constance and Paul start having a sexual affair. Later, Edward begins to suspect something when his wife increases the frequency with which she visits Manhattan, and when she no longer seems to be interested in him. After one of Edward's co-workers spots Constance and Paul kissing in a downtown cafe, Edward hires a detective (Dominic Chianese) to follow her.

The detective comes back with pictures of Constance and Paul, which devastates Edward. He decides to go visit Paul but is unable to get into the man's apartment. As Edward is about to leave, he sees Constance come out of the building, get into her car and drive off. Edward enters the building and confronts Paul. Edward finds a snow globe in the apartment, which Paul explains was given to him by Constance as a present. Edward is shocked as he originally gave his wife the globe as a present. In a sudden moment of rage Edward uses the snow globe to hit Paul several times on the head.

Edward manages to clean up the blood and wipe his fingerprints from everything he touched. He wraps Paul's dead body in a rug. The phone rings and Constance leaves a message on the answering machine saying that she needs to end the affair. Edward erases the message and leaves. He dumps Paul's body in the trunk of his car, and later that night, drives the body to the dump and leaves it among the rubbish.

Later, two police detectives show up at the Sumner home. They say that Paul's wife had reported him missing and they found Constance's phone number in his apartment. She says that she only met him once. A week later, the detectives come back and say that they have found Paul's body at the dump. She becomes very upset but maintains that she only met him once. Edward also tells the police that he'd never met Paul before. Later that night when Constance drops off Edward's clothes to the dry cleaners, she finds the photos of Paul and herself, and realizes that Edward must have known about the affair. She later finds out that Edward murdered Paul when she sees that the snow globe she gave to Paul is now back in her home.

Edward and Constance confront each other. She burns the photographs and he offers to turn himself in. Constance replies that he shouldn't and they will get through it together. She picks up the snow globe and the bottom of it comes loose. Inside is a note from Edward saying that she is the best part of every day. Later, Edward and Connie are in their car stopped at an intersection, talking about what they should do next. As this conversation goes on for a long time, the traffic lights change many times from red to green and back again, casting light on their faces. Finally, the camera pulls back to reveal that their car is stopped next to a police station.

Cast

• Diane Lane - Constance 'Connie'/'Con' Sumner
• Erik Per Sullivan - Charlie Sumner
• Richard Gere - Edward 'Ed' Sumner
• Olivier Martinez - Paul Martel
• Myra Lucretia Taylor - Gloria
• Michelle Monaghan - Lindsay
• Chad Lowe - Bill Stone
• Kate Burton - Tracy
• Margaret Colin - Sally
• Larry Gleason - Tim
• Dominic Chianese - Frank Wilson

Production

Brad Pitt and Ryan Phillippe were offered the role of Paul. However during pre-production, the producers received a video taped audition from Olivier Martinez and he ended up receiving the part. Paul was not originally envisioned as being French but became so when Martinez was cast. Director Adrian Lyne said, "I think it helps one understand how Connie might have leapt into this affair - he's very beguiling, doing even ordinary things." Once cast in the role, Martinez, with Lyne's approval, changed some of his dialogue and the approach to the scene where he first seduces Diane Lane's character while she is reading a braille book. According to Martinez, "The story that was invented before was much more sensual, erotic and clear." Lyne cast Lane in the role of Constance because he felt that the actress, "breathes a certain sexuality. But she's sympathetic, and I think so many sexy women tend to be tough and hard at the same time."

The film took four months to shoot.

To prepare for the initial love scene between Paul and Constance, Lyne had Lane watch the film Aimée & Jaguar. She and Olivier Martinez would also talk over the scenes in his trailer beforehand but once on set felt uncomfortable until several takes in. She said, "My comfort level with it just had to catch up quickly - if I wanted to be the actress to play it." The actress said that Lyne would often shoot a whole magazine of film, "so one take was as long as five takes. By the end, you're physically and emotionally shattered."

20th Century Fox did not like the film's "enigmatic" ending that refused to punish crimes committed by the characters and imposed a "particularly jarring 'Hollywood' final line." Reportedly, this angered Richard Gere and coupled with negative reactions from test audiences, the studio reinstated the original ending.

Reaction

File:Unfaithful.JPG

Edward (Richard Gere) picks up a snowglobe

On its opening weekend Unfaithful grossed $14 million in 2,617 theaters with an average of $5,374 per screen. It would make $52,775,765 in North America and a total of $119,137,784 worldwide.

The film received largely mixed to negative reviews with Diane Lane receiving praise for her performance. CNN film critic Paul Tatara wrote, "The audience when I saw this one was chuckling at all the wrong times, and that's a bad sign when they're supposed to be having a collective heart attack." Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman awarded the film an "A-" grade and praised Lane for delivering, "the most urgent performance of her career, is a revelation. The play of lust, romance, degradation, and guilt on her face is the movie's real story."

The studio took out trade ads and mailed copies of the movie to Academy voters by the end of November, picking out what it called the film's "iconic scene" as the theme of its campaign. The scene in question was when Constance recounts her first tryst with Paul as she takes a train home. The studio took a still from the scene and made it the focus of the campaign. According to Tom Rothman, chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment, "That scene captured the power of her performance. It's what everyone talked about after they saw her."

Four days before the New York Film Critics Circle's vote, Lane was given a career tribute by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. A day before that, Lyne held a dinner for the actress at the Four Seasons Hotel. Critics and award voters were invited to both. She went on to win the National Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle awards and was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Actress.

External links

• Official site
• Unfaithful at IMDb
• Unfaithful at Rotten Tomatoes
• Unfaithful at Box Office Mojo
• Movie stills