The humble erotic thriller has never been regarded as a bastion of cinematic excellence – at least in most cases, anyway – which hasn’t affected its popularity in the slightest when everyone knows why the genre has always been so popular. Trying to balance the best of both worlds, though, 2002’s Unfaithful landed recognition from the biggest ceremony on the calendar.
In fairness, a Rotten Tomatoes score of 50 percent isn’t going to see it remembered as one of the all-time greats, but Diane Lane’s phenomenal performance was more than worthy of the Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress that she most deservedly ended up securing in the aftermath.
Given the presence of Flashdance, 9½ Weeks, Fatal Attraction, and Indecent Proposal director Adrian Lyne behind the camera, those familiar with the filmmaker’s titillating oeuvre would have had a pretty good idea of what to expect from the jump, and there’s no shame in Unfaithful delivering exactly what was expected of it and little more.
Richard Gere discovers his wife is having an affair despite her protestations of innocence, only for him to become consumed with jealousy and rage that Lane’s spouse is having it off with Olivier Martinez’s smoldering younger man. Things end up getting every bit as far-fetched as they tend to do in the realm of cinematic eroticism, but streaming subscribers are nonetheless proving faithful to Unfaithful.
Per FlixPatrol, it’s snaffled a berth on the worldwide watch-lists of both Prime Video and Google Play, with skin most definitely in.