00s Movie Review - Unfaithful

Director: Adrian Lyne
Genre: Drama/ Thriller/ Romance
Runtime: 124 minutes
Year: 2002
Starring: Diane Lane, Richard Gere, Olivier Martinez, Michelle Monaghan, Chad Lowe

Description: A New York suburban couple’s (Richard Gere, Diane Lane) goes dangerously awry when the wife indulges in an adulterous fling.

Review: Edward Sumner and his wife Connie lead an exemplary life consisting of a good marriage, a beautiful house in one of the suburbs of New York and son Charlie.
When Connie bumps into a handsome Frenchman during a major windstorm while attempting to find a cab, her life changes abruptly. The man, Paul Martel, invites her to his apartment to treat her scraped knees after a fall. She becomes completely intrigued by Paul. At first she tries to resist the feelings but eventually she falls for the stranger. She invents all kinds of excuses to meet him. The inevitable happens: together they end up in a passionate affair. Eventually the deception takes its toll when Edward discovers what is going on, based on his feelings and little lies from Connie.
Director Adrian Lyne previously made high-profile films as “Fatal Attraction”, Indecent Proposal” and “9 ½ Weeks”. Despire the fact that these films may not the artistic masterpieces, they still managed to achieve reasonable commercial success. Partly due to the lack of innovation, this movie is not nearly as good as the aforementioned movies. The theme of the adulterous man or woman and the consequences for the environment does much less nowadays. The film never really wants to take on serious thriller-like forms and “Unfaithful” cannot be called excitingly erotic either. Therefore, the film, especially the first part of the film, ripples along a bit. The of the film eventually makes up for some of this.  
Richard Gere gives a reasonable performance as Edward, but Diane Lane is particularly convincing.  
“Unfaithful” is not a movie that I would rewatch, but it’s also not a terrible film. The length of the film doesn’t help here, it drags on a bit, especially at the start. But when the thriller elements enter the stage, the movie is a bit better and gets more exciting.

Rating: 3/ 5

TV Review: "Pretty Little Liars" Season 2

Genre: Drama/ Mystery/ Thriller

Year: 2011

Number of episodes: 24

Starring: Lucy Hale, Troian Bellisario, Ashley Benson, Shay Mitchell, Ian Harding, Holly Marie Combs, Chad Lowe, Laura Leighton, Sasha Pieterse, Janel Parrish, Keegan Allen, Torrey DeVitto, Tyler Blackburn, Tammin Sursok, Bryce Johnson , Drew van Acker, Yani Gellman

Description: Four friends band together against an anonymous foe who threatens to reveal their darkest secrets, while unraveling the mystery of the murder of their best friend.

Review: The second season of ABC Family's "Pretty Little Liars" is even more exciting, complex and especially entertaining. Even more then the first season. One of the two big mysteries, Alison's murder and stalker 'A', is solved in this season.

The four friends Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily are still stalked by the mysterious 'A', who is Always one step ahead of them. Spencer was spared, byt her brother-in-law Ian wasn't. Ian disappeared and nobody believed Spencer and what she saw really happened to Ian. The four girls are seperated and send to a therapist. But their search for 'A' continues and the girls keep ending up in dangerous situations and they don't know who to trust.

It's really easy to call a show about pretty teenage girls a simple teen drama. Especially because most of time it's exactly that. Aria's relationship with teacher Ezra continues, Hanna is in war with her new stepsister Kate and deals with a on and off relationship with Caleb. But the show is surprising enough and has great twists. The final episode has several references to the Hitchcock movie "Psycho" and it's a very exciting episode. And there is also a special Halloween episode. It's an intriguing whodunit and the storylines are constantly trying to mislead you.

There are shows that drag their storylines endlessly, but "Pretty Little Liars" has a good pace. Season 2 gives us some answers, but also gives us a lot more new questions. The mystery continues. A good mix of mystery, thriller and teen drama.

TV Review: "Pretty Little Liars" Season 1

Genre: Drama/ Mystery/ Thriller

Year: 2010

Number of episodes: 22

Starring: Lucy Hale, Troian Bellisario, Ashley Benson, Shay Mitchell, Ian Harding, Holly Marie Combs, Chad Lowe, Laura Leighton, Sasha Pieterse, Janel Parrish, Keegan Allen, Torrey DeVitto, Tyler Blackburn, Tammin Sursok, Bryce Johnson

Description: Four friends band together against an anonymous foe who threatens to reveal their darkest secrets, while unraveling the mystery of the murder of their best friend.

Review: I’m a pretty good girl, but everyone likes a little gossip and intrigue now and then. And the people who deny this are liars. Well, “Pretty Little Liars” is the perfect show for teen drama, mystery and lies.

Four friends, who are very different from each other, also have many things in common. One of those things is where this show starts with. The disappearance of their friend Alison. A fun thing about a mysterious show like “Pretty Little Liars” is that I constantly want to reveal the mysteries. But I also don’t, because then it all ends. The show does this well, lots of twists, some predictable some surprising. You really want to find out what happened to Alison.

The story revolves around five friends. Alison DiLaurentis is the one that goes missing in the first episode. A year later, the other four girls are brought together again. Hanna Marin is the friend that wants to be like Alison. When she met Alison, she was a little overweight and very insecure. Because of Alison, Hanna became more self-assured and she also acts more like Alison. Spencer Hastings is the most serious one of the group. She is good with computers, is serious about school and is very intelligent. Spencer’s parents have high expectations of her. Aria Montgomery is keeping a secret for her father, who she caught cheating on her mom. But she also has a secret of her own, when she starts dating her English teacher. Emily Fields (my favorite character this first season) is the caring one in the group, she is a good swimmer and she is also struggling with her sexuality when she meets a new neighbor.

Alison is the pretty girl, that everyone adored. She likes a challenge, but do her friends really know Alison all that well? When the four girls reunite, they start receiving messages from someone called A. Together they try to find out who A is and they also stumble upon many secrets and lies.

The fact that we don’t know who A is and the story keeps revealing new surprising information, makes “Pretty Little Liars” a joy to watch. It’s an exciting show, filled with lies, intrigue and mystery. I can’t wait to start season 2.