In Adrian Lyne's steamy erotic thriller Unfaithful, the adulterous wife does not love her young French lover.

It is a clear case of lust.

Connie Sumner (Diane Lane) loves her husband Edward (Richard Gere), their young son Charlie (Erik Per Sullivan) and their idyllic suburban home in New York's Westchester County.

At the same time, Connie longs for the passions Paul Martel (Olivier Martinez) excites in her.

It's after she leaves Paul and while she travels back to Edward that Connie suffers agonizing guilt.

This is a complex state of mind that Lane captures with shattering honesty. There is a scene on a train which reveals the torment Connie is experiencing.

She has just spent the afternoon in Paul's bed and is on her way back to Westchester. The camera lingers on Lane as she alternately recalls with delight the afternoon's seduction then shivers with repulsion at betraying her husband and child.

Unfaithful is a powerful movie because Lane is able to explore the conflicting emotions tearing Connie apart.

This is not a woman who is in an unhappy or abusive relationship. She just finds herself inexplicably drawn to the illicit joys and dangers inherent in her affair.

At first, Edward has no idea he is being cuckolded, because theirs is such a happy marriage. When he stumbles on the truth, he doesn't know how to handle it.

This is one of Gere's more subtle and telling performances as he conveys Edward's pain, disbelief and anger with candid understatement. There is no raging just suppressed rage and that is all the more chilling.

Gere has several particularly wrenching scenes after Edward has positive proof of the affair. The hurt in Gere's eyes as Edward looks at Connie knowing she has betrayed him is palpable.

As the libertine in the triangle, Martinez has a role usually reserved for a woman. He is a free-spirited object of desire, who sees no guilt and asks for no commitment.

Paul is also naive because he believes others have a similar amoral view of love and lust and trusts there will be no repercussions if his dalliances are discovered.

It's an even more smouldering performance than Martinez delivered in his French film Horseman on the Roof.

As he proved with 9 1/2 Weeks, Fatal Attraction, Lolita and Indecent Proposal, Lyne knows how to stage sex scenes for specific effects.

Paul and Connie's first sexual encounter is rough rather than tender because Paul knows his lover needs to vent her guilt and anger.

Subsequent trysts are playful, sensitive and even purposely dangerous as they have sex in public places.

Unfaithful is a slick, intriguing adult thriller that is both provocative and thought provoking. (More on Unfaithful)

(This film is rated AA)

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