September 14, 2012

Film Review: Unfaithful

(First published online on January 14, 2011)


“In love; there is no mistake, only things that you do and don’t do.”

Writing a film review is one of the usual stuffs that I do after I watched a motion picture. But due to busy schedules, lately, I just find myself unable to produce one. So after my co-worker lent me a copy of the 2002 Adrian Lyne-film, Unfaithful, I made it a point to create one. Actually, I’m really eager to put emphasis on the literary part but before I do that, I would make a quick run-through of the technical aspect first.

Musical score including the soundtrack is great. I think, they used the right songs to distinguish every scene and in that, I would like to commend them. Camera treatment was fine and even if there are rated-18 scenes, they managed to handle them very carefully so as not to exploit what should not be exploited. I didn’t expect much on the actors for I know that the acting of Richard Gere and the likes would surely be accountable. Almost every scene is well-taken care of and for that, I would applause them.

However, as for the plot, I don’t quite agree with how they portray the human behavior. I haven’t been in a very serious relationship and I don’t know how a woman thinks. I don’t say that there are no people who will hit someone even if they know that they are already married, just to satisfy their lust. Perhaps there are true people who are like that, which is why the term ‘unfaithful’ is coined but no matter what, they shouldn’t have ended the story that way.

There are a lot of ways to conclude it but not through a tragedy. Sure, what happened was very difficult for the husband but still, they should have managed to put a civil way to how the matter should be done to justify that things like disloyalty can be solved through the cooperation of everyone.

In the film, the wife played by Diane Lane was portrayed as a weak one since she was like the one being easily tempted to pressure of being disloyal. I don’t want to debate as to who falls as a prey easily but one thing I do believe is that this shouldn’t be an issue. After all, before one took a vow of marriage, he or she promises to trust one another and be there for one another for love equates to trust. A relationship without the fundamentality of trust is like a home without a foundation that can easily be inundated by anyone.

The husband, on the other hand, is also portrayed as weak since he failed to identify the right manner in which he should handle that kind of situation. The movie indirectly tells its viewers that to solve such marital issue; the father must commit a perfect crime and just manage to get away with it. Law wasn’t even enforced in the story which had a negative implication to the society. The film also shows another indirect hit to female species since when the police were already looking for the suspect, they somehow pointed to Diane when earlier, it was shown that Olivier was also affiliated with another woman. In a way, it’s like emphasizing that in situations like that; women are the ones that can be held accountable.

Truly, love is a very complicated and probably one of the dangerous feelings created on earth yet amidst all the hardships and trials, lovers must stand out and fight for what is good. I also don’t agree with the message that there is no mistake in love, in fact, there are; only that one must have to realize how to make it right.


By the way, before I forgot, one funny scene that took my attention was when Gere was carrying the cold body of Olivier Martinez, the man affiliated to Lane, even if he had been dead for a couple of hours, his body still remained bendable and lightweight. As far as I know, as a person dies, his body immediately becomes as hard and heavy as a rock. Surely, it passed the director’s scrutiny, hehe…

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