Unfaithful (2002 film)
| Unfaithful | |
|---|---|
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| 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 |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Running time | 124 min |
| Budget | $50,000,000 |
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.
Plot summary
Template:Spoiler The story centers on Constance "Connie"/"Con" (Diane Lane) and Edward "Ed" Sumner (Richard Gere) as a couple living in the New York City suburbs whose marriage goes dangerously awry when she indulges in an adulterous fling.
The movie begins with Connie making breakfast while Charlie gets ready for work and their eight-year old son Charlie gets ready for school. She says to them that she is going to Manhattan to do some shopping for an auction she is planning. Later when Edward and Charlie step outside to go school/work, gale force winds are blowing.
Connie then takes the train into Manhattan's Grand Central Station, but has difficulty trying to walk through the area in the winds. As she chases after taxis, she bumps into a stranger (Olivier Martinez) carrying a stack of books. They both fall and Connie scraps her knee.
The stranger offers to take Connie to his apartment to clean off the scrap. 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 out of a beautiful loft. He offers her tea and she calls home to check on her son. While she is talking to her son, Paul moves up silently behind her and places ice on her knee. She gasps, but he moves away before she realizes why she gasped.
Connie 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 as a gift. Later that night, Connie tells her husband about the incident but does elaborate on her visit to Paul's apartment.
The next morning, after Edward and Charlie leave, she picks up the poetry book from Paul. His 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 Connie enters into Paul's apartment, he has soft music playing and 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.
Connie and Paul start having an affair. Later, Edward begins to suspect something when Connie increases the frequency with which she visits Manhattan, and when she no longer seems to interested in him. After one of Edward's co-workers spots Connie and Paul kissing in a downtown cafe, Edward hires a detective to follow Connie.
The detective comes back with pictures of Connie and Paul, which devastate Edward. He decides to go visit Paul. But when he arrives at the apartment building, he is unable to get in the front door so he walks back to the car. Just as he turns his back, he sees Connie come out of the building, get into her car and drive off. Edward then slips inside when someone else comes out of the apartment.
Edward confronts Paul and gets angrier and angrier with him. When Edward spots a snow globe on Paul's window stil, he gets so irate that he uses the snow globe to attack Paul on the head. The last thing Paul sees is blood pouring down his face.
Edward then starts to panic, but manages to clean up the blood, wipe off his fingerprints from everything he touched. He wraps Paul's dead body up in a Persian Rug and dumps him in his trunk. Just as he was about to leave, the phone rings. It is Connie who says on the answering machine that she needs to end the affair. Edward erases the message and leaves. That night, Edward leaves Paul's body at the dump.
Later, two police detectives show up at the Sumner home. They say that Paul's wife had reported him missing, and they found Connie's phone number in his's apartment. Connie says that she only met him once.
A week later, the detectives come back and say that they found Paul's body at the dump. Connie 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 Connie drops off Edward's clothes to the dry cleaners, she finds the photos of her and Paul and realizes that Edward must have had something to do with Paul's death. Her suspicions are confirmed when she sees that snow globe that she gave Paul back at her home.
Edward and Connie confront each other about what each had done. They burn the photographs and Edward offers to turn himself in. Connie replies that he shouldn't and they would get through it together. Connie then picks up the snow globe and the bottom of the globe comes loose. Inside is a note from Edward saying that she is the best part of everyday (which explains why Edward became irate when he saw it in Paul's apartment).
Later, Edward and Connie are in their car stopped at an intersection, talking about what they should do next. They discuss whether they sell their house and business, move to a new location and change their names, starting life over again, or should Edward turn himself in to the police. As this conversation goes on for a long time, the stop light changes many times from red to green and back again, casting red and green light on their faces. Finally, the camera pulls back to reveal that their car is stopped near a police station, and the movie ends before the audience ever hears their final decision.
Cast includes
- 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
- Joseph Badalucco Jr. - Train conductor
- Erich Anderson - Bob Gaylord
- Damon Gupton - Other businessman
- Kate Burton - Tracy
- Margaret Colin - .Sally
- Marc Forget - Café bartender
- Larry Gleason - Tim
- Dominic Chianese - Frank Wilson
Awards
The movie was nominated for more than 10 awards, including the 2002 Academy Award for Best Actress (Lane), a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama (Lane), and Best Sound Editing in a Feature.
External links
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