Unfaithful (Widescreen Edition)

This sensual and somber drama about infidelity stars Diane Lane and Richard Gere as a married couple headed for tragedy. Connie (Lane) and Edward (Gere) are successful suburbanites with a seemingly happy marriage, until Connie meets an attractive younger man and begins an affair. Edward wonders what's going on, hires a private detective, and gets the answer he suspected all along.

Lane is memorable as the guilt-ridden wife who is obsessed with her lover. She is lovely, mature, and honest in her portrayal and deserved her nomination for Best Actress. Gere is almost a supporting actor here, but he is wonderful playing an average guy. Olivier Martinez plays Lane's paramour. His character was fairly one-dimensional and could have been developed further, but he was very good in the role.

The first time I saw the movie, I thought it was relatively dull because of its relentlessly low-key presentation and leisurely pace. On the second viewing, however, I found it a real winner. There are long periods without dialogue, where the camera focuses on facial nuances. The silence gives one a chance to appreciate the fine acting. The photography is excellent, from wide shots of dirty urban streets to warm glimpses of home. The musical score was lovely, lilting and romantic. "Unfaithful" is erotic and tender, with some surprises and an excellent ending. -- Kona (Emerald City)

UNFAITHFUL is a film that might perhaps tap into a viewer's double standard regarding extramarital sex.

Connie Sumner (Diane Lane) and her husband Edward (Richard Gere) seem to have all the ingredients for a perfect marriage after eleven years of togetherness. They live in a perfect house in an affluent New York City suburb and have a child, a well behaved son, enrolled in the perfect school. Edward is financially successful as the head of his own business, and is apparently an excellent provider. Connie doesn't have to work, but spends her time soliciting for charities. They have bountiful food on the table and drive upscale, late model cars. All are physically healthy. The household is free of disruptive emotional extremes.

Some would kill for much less.

One day in the Big Apple, a violent windstorm literally blows Connie into the arms of a used-book merchant, Paul Martel (Olivier Martinez), staggering down the street with a burden of tomes. Both fall to the pavement, Connie scraping her knee. Paul is young and handsome. Paul invites Connie up to his apartment for tea and band aids. Such is Connie's starvation for seduction and passionate intimacy that she's soon visiting the city on a regular basis for a discrete affair carried on not always so discretely. Edward becomes suspicious after odd answers to the usual end-of-the-day query, "What did you do today, honey?" Edward eventually hires a gumshoe to follow her.

I first saw Diane Lane in the TV miniseries LONESOME DOVE and thought "What a sweetheart!" In UNFAITHFUL, it's "What a Babe!" - but, hey, let's not allow that to color my opinion of her performance here. Lane is superb as a subliminally bored woman feeling the conflicting emotions - giddiness, guilt, exuberance, mortification - of an illicit affair, a turmoil wonderfully illustrated as we watch her face and body language as she comes home on the commuter rail after her first intimate encounter. Lane, not Gere, is the star of this film, though the latter is perfectly adequate as the man who slowly realizes he's being cuckolded. My minor disenchantment with the movie is an ending too open-ended for my taste, especially as it occurs in front of the local police station.

Though the viewer must certainly think that Connie is making a Big Mistake for the long term, I had sympathy for her short term actions. I'm left wondering if this is a gender-based opinion. Would I have felt different if the roles of Ed and Connie had been reversed, and the former had been doing the cheating? I suspect so. And would a female viewer have a harsher opinion of Connie's choices?

I liked UNFAITHFUL for the questions it raises. I think it much better than the response it received while in theater release. Oh, and I never realized sno globes were built so sturdily. Mine with the cute, little bunnies in the forest shattered early on. -- Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA)

Release Date: 12/17/2002

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Under the Tuscan Sun (Widescreen Edition)

This was an awesome movie that kept me watching it from beginning to end. I haven't read the book, but after watching that movie, I do intend to. It's amazing how uplifting this spirited movie was. Diane Lane was supurb without coming across as trying too much. We never get to see her husband "Tom" who screwed her over royally in the divorce, which I think was a good decision. The movie stays in the present looking ahead to the future with a sense of hope and promise. Pick up this movie for an excellent movie night - even if you're not a chick! -- Meg "icecat516" (Worcester, MA United States)

What starts out as an Italian "Money Pit" with all the attendant broken pipes, crumbling walls and incompetent handymen makes a turn for the better about a third of the way through: a more emotionally centered and revealing movie,"Under the Tuscan Sun."
The luminescent Diane Lane stars as Frances, an intelligent, loving women with close and committed friends who finds herself in a situation that many people do: with a mate who has fallen out of love, wants a divorce as well as possession of a much loved and painstakingly renovated house, this one in San Francisco. After the divorce Frances goes to Tuscany on a lark, falls in love with a villa there, buys it and proceeds to renovate it. The villa then is the physical manifestation of the shedding of her old life and marriage and the hope for the renovation and rehabilitation of her love life as well as her life in general.
That she probably places too much faith in the physical to solve the emotional does not detract at all from the guts and hope that it takes to do so. And Lane is so psychically centered and open as Frances that you cannot help but be moved by her situation.
There are some silly plot lines and performances that I wish weren't, but with a central performance as attractive and genuinely loving and feminine as Lane's, "Under The Tuscan Sun" is as warm and inviting as bread just out of the oven. -- MICHAEL ACUNA (Southern California United States)

Release Date: 02/03/2004

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Killshot

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Hollywoodland

There is a fantastic film within "Hollywoodland"! That film stars Ben Affleck and Diane Lane, both giving superlative performances. As TV Superman George Reeves, Affleck connects with a role that some say mirror his own situation. He's an appealing, handsome actor of limited range who is not generally regarded for having actual talent. And Affleck steps up to the task of inhabiting that persona--he shows the frustration, rage, and longing for respect that comes with being typecast as Superman. Diane Lane plays the wife of a studio exec who fancies Reeves and turns him into her kept "boy." Well, an older woman never looked so good! Lane just seems to get better and better as the years go by. She hits all the right notes in a performance that's wickedly sexy, desperate, charming, and funny--all rolled up into one.

This relationship, her open marriage to Bob Hoskins, his courtship with a golddigger played nicely by Robin Tunney, and the tale of Reeves' struggle in Hollywood--this is all grand entertainment. It's filmed and executed beautifully and is thoroughly fascinating.

Sadly, there is also an average film within "Hollywoodland." That film stars Adrien Brody as a two-bit private detective hired to look into Reeves' apparent suicide. Might it have been more? In addition to the investigation, we get many other glimpses into Brody's life--his strained relationship with his wife and child, his affair with a younger woman, another case that goes terribly wrong, and some backstory about how he ended up on the outskirts of the Hollywood machine. It's all fine, but nothing nearly as intriguing as the Reeves case--and nothing particularly original, either

Sadly, the two aspects never merged cohesively for me. Every time you're drawn into something interesting in Reeves' life--BOOM, the film pulls you out to see some parallel with the detective. Well, ultimately, I just had to say "who cares?" to most of those moments. Brody's relationship with his son, for example, plays prominently. Not enough time is spent with these subplots to actually develop feelings one way or the other--they just serve to shut down the main action. Now I'm not blaming Brody--his performance is fine--all the performances are fine. It's the structure of the film. It just doesn't serve the story well--however talented everyone associated with this production may be.

Part of the film was 5 stars, part was 3 stars. I'd rate the whole venture at about 3 1/2--with regret--because there is a film in here that I would have loved to see. -- K. Harris "Film aficionado" (Las Vegas, NV)

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Must Love Dogs (Full Screen Edition)

Over the past several years, starting with "Man on the Moon" and extending through "Unfaithful" and particularly including "Under the Tuscan Sun," Diane Lane has re-built a career as a quietly sexy, unbelievably beautiful, mature (meaning over 40...but who is counting?) actress.
Lane's very presence on the screen makes you feel comfortable and gives you hives because she is so human, so humane, so thoughtful and emotionally available. She's the new Jessica Lange or Meryl Streep without the angst and paranoia.
"Must Love Dogs" is not the best movie Diane Lane has been in nor is it the worst. The screenplay lacks the spark of "Under the Tuscan Sun" and the emotional weight of "Man on the Moon" or "Unfaithful." But damn it all, I'll grab at any chance I can to catch a glimpse of Lane's smile or to hear her laugh.
Lane is so gracious and giving an actress that she let's a big huge black dog steal many of their scenes together in this movie.
But who cares? She could sit in a chair in front of the camera and read the want ads and I would be enthralled. In short, Diane Lane is Mother Earth, someone you'd like as a best friend or the girlfriend you never had. She is Love, She is Womanhood, She is just so darn appealing. -- ICHAEL ACUNA (Southern California United States)

Release Date: 12/20/2005

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