Unfaithful

Diane Lane bares just as much acting talent as flesh in this leering, lurid tale of infidelity: we see more of both than ever before. The misfire here is that the hollowness of her tryst is generated by unconvincing motivation and stick-men sketches of her husband (a subdued, bespectacled Richard Gere) and lover (Horseman on the Roof’s shamelessly seductive Olivier Martinez) rather than its highly revved sex-without-love engine. Lane basically reprises her Walk on the Moon role as a bored suburban housewife who jeopardizes It All (loving husband, adorable son, comfy home) to fornicate in a Manhattan loft and restaurant restroom with a French book collector. She then has mixed feelings of ecstasy and guilt before a confrontation erupts between husband and bedmate. Director Adrian Lyne (Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal) once again swathes adultery in visually lush images in a retread of Claude Chabrol’s 1969 drama La Femme Infidele that feels more exploitative than exploratory.