Before the categories, the film is said to have had a $50 million budget and made $119 million worldwide.
Roger Ebert gave it three stars, quoted as praising the film for contemplating two reasonably sane adults in an almost insoluble dilemma instead of pumping up the plot with recycled manufactured thrills.

In the discussion (6)

Approx. transcript time · 01:06:59Read transcript

Brad Pitt and Ryan Phillippe were reportedly offered Paul before the role was made French for exoticism; everyone who likes the movie likes Olivier Martinez.
Cheating with someone of a different nationality might feel like an 80 percent cheat; another white guy would have hit Gere harder.
Jennifer Lopez was offered the role and turned it down because the script was not all the way there, and after Lane's nomination said she wanted to shoot her toe off.
Speaking as a J.Lo actor truther, one participant says she made the right choice: it is a particular movie-star part that works with Diane Lane or Foster, and J.Lo in the suburbs married to Gere would never stop being J.Lo.
The film never shows how the couple met; audiences may know Gere and Lane worked together before, and there is a wish to see Gere pick someone up without paying.
Lyne cast Lane after seeing A Walk on the Moon, calling her sympathetic when so many sexy women are tough and hard.

The couple's young son

In the discussion (1)

Approx. transcript time · 01:14:19Read transcript

The recast wanted is the little kid: a Gere-Lane child would be gorgeous, and the actor, recalled as a brother on Malcolm in the Middle, did not feel like their child despite being charming and funny.

Source film; Lyne's repeated takes; weight-gain request; smoke-filled apartment illnesses

In the discussion (6)

Approx. transcript time · 01:15:06Read transcript

The film is based on the 1969 French film The Unfaithful Wife.
Lyne's repeated takes, especially for the sex scenes, were demanding and meant to break the actors down; by the end, per Lane, you're physically and emotionally shattered.
The strangeness of acting is noted, with hours of simulated sex until you crack, and the shivering in the first sexual encounter is praised.
Lyne wanted Gere and Lane to gain weight to seem like a comfortable middle-aged couple; both refused, and donuts left in Gere's trailer every morning did not take.
Per Gere, the smoke in the apartment blew out their throats and a doctor was on hand shooting people up with antibiotics for bronchial infections; Lyne is called the true madman compared with David Fincher.
Earlier, flagged as half-assed internet research: Lyne shot five endings after Fatal Attraction, the studio wanted the characters punished, Gere and Lane returned weeks before release to reshoot the car ending, and an alternate ending had him walking to the police station.

Body carried out unnoticed; implausible murder and disposal; bad police work; wiping off prints; the elevator carry

In the discussion (8)

Approx. transcript time · 01:18:20Read transcript

A mother's biggest nitpick after about 330 viewings: nobody notices Gere carrying a body in a rug out of a New York apartment, and a passerby even offers help.
Everything about the murder is dumb: why, how, and the disposal; Martinez is guessed at 6-2 and Gere 5-9, and a dead body would not fold into a rug that way.
Dumping the body at a landfill instead of burying it reflects the entitlement of well-off suburbanites.
The police were bad: DNA, a cleaned-up pool of blood, the wife's fingerprints, her phone number, and parking tickets out front; her parking-ticket lie is called decent.
Wiping one glass with his hand is a movie cliche; a real killer would need a montage of wiping everything.
Pushing a 200-pound body up when the elevator breaks down would be an Olympic event, beyond even LeBron James.
Earlier flag: Connie giving Paul her husband's gift is implausible because it is directly traceable to her.
Earlier flag: Edward cleans the apartment of blood and DNA for 19 hours but leaves the detective photos in his jacket.

Paul did not have to die; Richard Gere is a conditionally good actor; claim self-defense; the marriage does not survive

In the discussion (7)

Approx. transcript time · 01:22:42Read transcript

Did Paul deserve to die? A case: he was a dick when Gere came to the door, opened the snow-globe bit, and could have looked sheepish; but did he have to die? No, it was a dumb reason to die.
The missing movie: a bad sex life, an affair that enlivens her, a husband who murders the lover, and a couple who hide it and use it to make their marriage kinkier, like two psychos in a John Waters movie.
Is Richard Gere a good actor? He is called a conditional good actor who takes many shots with low points per game, good with Julia Roberts, Winger and Andy Garcia, but hard to cast opposite, as with Foster in Summersby.
Where would you dump a body? The better move was to say he confronted the man and hit him in self-defense; claiming self-defense is relayed as a suggestion from Craig.
One participant would never kill anyone and does not want to be in that position.
The junkyard would not be the final choice; with that big house, the body could have been stashed under it.
What happens to the Sumners next? They are guessed to divorce within a couple of years because the marriage cannot survive; views differ on whether he turns himself in, and DNA means they would be caught anyway.