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Unfaithful poster

Unfaithful

124 minutes

Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Richard Gere Edward Sumner
Diane Lane Connie Sumner
Olivier Martinez Paul Martel
Erik Per Sullivan Charlie Sumner
Željko Ivanek Detective Dean
Dominic Chianese Frank Wilson
Kate Burton Tracy
Chad Lowe Bill Stone

Unfaithful | The Rewatchables

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Producer credits not yet identified.

Most Rewatchable Scene

Paul's windstorm pickup of Connie; Connie's train ride after the first affair; lunch with friends; Edward killing Paul; Connie confronting Edward

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:43:25Read transcript
  • The first listed pick is the windstorm pickup: the Frenchman hits on Connie, gets her up to the apartment, and once she goes upstairs it is over; there is a wish that a wife would have declined and found a cab.
  • Connie's post-affair train ride, with the flashbacks and her expressions, is called a good one and number one.
  • The lunch with her two friends is liked as one of the best-written scenes, feeling like friends catching up while she has just had sex in the bathroom; the sequence is called peak Adrian Lyne, like an international-coffee commercial with sex in the middle.
  • Edward killing the French guy with the snow globe is another enjoyed scene.
  • Connie confronting Edward after finding the snow globe back in their house is picked, including his lines that he knew from the first day and wanted to kill her, not him.
  • The last half hour is called pretty good and the ambiguous ending is liked.
  • Edward's visit to Paul's SoHo apartment is walked through: a wide shot of him outside, Connie running out, and a bizarre interaction in which Paul is a dick, calls his life pedestrian and says the snow globe was a gift, leaving the killing half-justified.
  • Objection: Diane Lane would never have given her lover a gift from her husband that can be traced back to her; this is flagged for picking nits.

What’s Aged the Best?

Early-2000s SoHo; Paul's apartment; hiring someone to follow the wife; the dry-cleaner photo discovery; keeping French guys away from your wife

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 00:48:41Read transcript
  • Early-2000s SoHo is liked, as a substitute for Fatal Attraction's meatpacking district.
  • Paul Martel's apartment is liked; research says Lyne pumped in so much smoke for the sunlit musty look that everyone filming there for a month got sick.
  • The apartment matches the Nine and a Half Weeks and Fatal Attraction style, and Lyne is said to live in one of those apartments, known from an interview with him.
  • The score is offered next and mocked: it feels cheaty, is likened to imagined lyrics about loins, is questioned as selling tissues or spritzers, and is said to sound like Claire of the Moon, one of the worst lesbian movies ever made.
  • Any scene where someone tells an older, scary-looking man to follow their wife is always good, made better because it is Uncle June.
  • Connie finding the photos in Edward's jacket at the dry cleaners is liked, with Lyne spinning the machines while her friend talks unheard.
  • A question: who hires a detective, keeps the proof photos in his jacket, and leaves it for his wife to take to the dry cleaners after meticulously cleaning the apartment for 19 hours? This is flagged for picking nits.
  • A lesson that aged well: keep French guys away from your wife; who has replaced the sexy Frenchman is debated, with Italians or a Spaniard floated.
  • Olivier Martinez does not do it for one participant, while that participant's wife and mother rate him 10 out of 10, prompting a Venn diagram joke about what gay men and straight women like.

What’s Aged the Worst?

Anyone cheating on Richard Gere; over-explained dialogue; pay phones; school-play scenes

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:53:49Read transcript
  • A mother's number one nitpick is offered: she is the biggest Richard Gere fan ever, once approached him at a New Canaan charity event, and cannot conceive of anyone cheating on him, likened to dunking on Michael Jordan seven times in a playoff series.
  • The mother is joked to be upset that she gets less podcast attention than the dad and sports, even though she taught reading and writing.
  • Dialogue where one character asks another "do you love me" is hated, compared with the "tell me I led a good life" ending of Saving Private Ryan.
  • The "Are you okay? I'm fine" exchange is singled out; the film walks up to what a marriage with an unspoken secret is like but has people say gibberish and explains too much, such as calling the nail salon, when looks would do.
  • Pay phones were a huge part of adultery movies; she has a cell phone in this movie yet uses a pay phone, and lacks one when she needs it most.
  • School-play scenes are never idyllic in real life, with parents fighting for seats and holding up camera phones.
  • School-play scenes reflect the biases of married white filmmakers with children; the handholding close-ups are noted, and the child playing a rabbit is read as a Fatal Attraction callback.
  • School plays, elementary and Little League games in movies are all hated, closing the aged-worst list.
In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:12:14Read transcript
  • Margaret Cullen, as transcribed, is loved for her fire and was on The West Wing, but never totally made it.
  • The award goes to the actor playing the detective, transcribed as Zyko Ivanovich, a classic That Guy from Oz, School Ties and many Law & Order episodes who is in everything.
In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:16:52Read transcript
  • Diane Lane is at Apex Mountain, 100 percent; it is nice that she finally got an awesome part.
  • Olivier Martinez is 'probably' there, unless it was when he won a fist fight with Halle Berry's new boyfriend, Gabriel Aubry.
  • Richard Gere, no way; Adrian Lyne, no.
  • Reading Braille as foreplay is floated as an Apex first and mocked from a blind person's perspective, like offering a spin in a wheelchair.
  • Killing someone with a snow globe is floated as a first, though it feels like there have been snow-globe murders before.

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

Only works as a movie or a one-season show

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:21:38Read transcript
  • It would make a very good Netflix show about a seemingly happy couple and a wife beginning an affair, the kind a mother would watch.
  • Objection: that show is The Affair, which became terrible, though season one was good; it was reportedly made because Unfaithful kept airing on cable for 15 years.
  • Conclusion: it only works as a movie, a one-season show at most.
  • Ruth Wilson is an aside, called baffling and an imitation American.