Dangerous liaison Unfaithful has some evocative performances

Nigam Nuggehalli

Earlier in the movie, the illicit lover of a happily married woman tells her, quoting Omar Khayyam in Rubaiyat, "Be happy for the moment. This moment is your life".

Later, he says, "There are no mistakes in life, only things you do and don't do."

Portentous words and heavy with latent meaning. But Unfaithful never lets its protagonists articulate these emotions further. And the entire experience ends up as a rehash of daytime soap opera.

Diane Lane plays Constance (a name carefully chosen for its counter-intuitive significance to the plot) who has a picture perfect life with her husband Edward (Richard Gere), in the suburban paradise of Westchester county near New York City. Edward commutes to Manhattan for a living while Connie takes care of their kid and a dog, both appropriately cute in their respective antics.

While shopping in Soho, Manhattan, Connie collides with French antique book dealer Paul Martel (the gleeful French actor Olivier Martinez) and begins a forbidden affair complete with romps among crumpled bedsheets, dirty men's rooms and dark staircases. Predictably, the husband confronts the love, and melodrama ensues for all involved.

This movie has some evocative performances by Diana Lane and Olivier Martinez. In one awe-inspiring scene, Connie recalls her first sexual encounter with the Frenchman while she is on a train headed home. Seated among passengers content in their tranquility, Connie's face is a mixture of passion laced with guilt, happiness overshadowed by a sense of foreboding.

Olivier Martinez is cast perfectly as the amorous lover. He manages to perfectly convey the idea of a sexy, charming flirt who is ultimately indifferent to his lover's emotional needs or demands for loyalty. He is content to use his raw sexuality to overcome any flaws in his character.

Richard Gere is adequate as the archetypical suburban white male who needs to be in control all the time. His character is less flushed out than the other characters, and the responsibility lies as much with the screenplay as with the actor's inability to bring passion to his role.

The movie is strongest in its portrayal of upper middle class America. When events surrounding the affair are hurlting towards their tragic end, Connie and Edward find time to see their child act in the school play. With the couple clapping in unison with the rest of the proud parents, the movie captures the superficial portrayal of the happy well adjusted family, only to tear down the veil a few scenes later, when Edward declares to Connie, "I hate you!"

But these emotion packed scenes do not embellish a trite screenplay, which oddly enough, was written with the combined cerebral power of four writers. A bored wife, an insouciant lover, and the emotionally wrought, cuckolded husband --- we have seen these too many times to empathise with the characters.

Director Adrian Lyne is no stranger to this genre, having made Fatal Attraction, and Indecent Proposal before. But this movie can't even match whatever originality the previous movies had. Mr. Lyn started out making television commercials, and it looks like he has succumbed to his first love.