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UNFAITHFUL by Tom McCurrie
Picture this opening Friday at a theatre near you -- a movie starring the
most popular actor in the world, a guy so beloved even his pocket lint is
stalked by paparazzi. Can't miss, right? Wrong, since the flick goes
belly up at every one of its three thousand-plus screens.
Why? Because the actor spends the entire movie bashing in the heads of
baby seals with a circus mallet. Not surprisingly, audiences don't cotton
to a protagonist this wacko and stay away in droves.
Now the characters in UNFAITHFUL don't bash away at baby seals, but that's
not saying much. That's because the script for Adrian Lyne's latest is
full of people who are unsympathetic at best and downright annoying at
worst. And without characters to root for, an audience will abandon your
story quicker than the first episode of EMERIL.
(Warning: Spoiler Alert!)
Written by Alvin Sargent and William Broyles, Jr., UNFAITHFUL spins a
variation on the age-old love triangle -- vaguely dissatisfied suburban
mom Connie (Diane Lane) embarks on a torrid affair with a book-dealing
Frenchman named Paul (Olivier Martinez). Though it's understandable
Connie would be attracted to Paul -- this guy is so hunky he should be put
out to stud -- adultery is adultery, making her character difficult to
care about.
The fact that she has a young son (Erik Per Sullivan) only makes matters
worse. Connie becomes so obsessed with her illicit rendezvous she
abandons her motherly duties every chance she gets. This not only makes
Connie unsympathetic -- it makes her borderline hateful.
Of course, we're not going to get too far caring for Paul, either. In
between romps with Connie he spends his time nuzzling other women and
hiding the fact that he's already married. Viva la France!
This leaves jilted hubby Edward (Richard Gere) as the only one worthy of
our sympathies. But all that changes when he decides to send Paul into
the next life via some blunt force trauma. Now this isn't an accident,
nor is it even manslaughter -- it's out and out murder. Though Paul is
sleazy as hell, that doesn't justify his one-way ticket to the Big Sleep.
Those of you who think otherwise might want to hop on the next plane to
L.A. and volunteer as a character witness for Robert Blake. Those of you
who don't will soon cease caring about this cuckold-turned-killer,
especially when he tries to hide the body and escape punishment.
So can a movie examine the dark side of a marriage while still having
sympathetic characters? Yes, and the proof lies in one of Adrian Lyne's
own films, FATAL ATTRACTION.
Like UNFAITHFUL, FATAL ATTRACTION is about an adulterous affair and its
consequences. And Michael Douglas is definitely unsympathetic for having
a fling with Glenn Close. As is Close for being a full-tilt psycho. But
Lyne makes sure the betrayed Anne Archer is totally sympathetic. When she
shoots Close, she's not doing it out of revenge, she's doing it to protect
her family. And Douglas' attempts to protect his wife help redeem him as
well, putting him in the sympathetic column by the end of the picture.
So make sure there's at least one character in your script an audience can
care about. After all, sex may sell, but emotion rules.
Responses, comments and general two-cents worth can be E-mailed to
gillis662000@yahoo.com.
A graduate of USC's School of Cinema-Television, Tom McCurrie has worked
as a development executive and a story analyst. He is currently a
screenwriter living in Los Angeles.
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