American Beauty. Very strange, beautiful, but disturbing film. Lester is trying to get a life, not so much to win his cheating wife back, but to attract his teenage daughter's lolita-like friend.
The Ice Storm. Made me feel sad and gross when I saw it. All about the 70's in suburban CT. Affairs, key parties, revenge affairs, etc.
I honeslty think High Fidelity and Unfaithful are the films that have the most powerful exploration of the subject, particuarly the former.
In the case of unfaithful the subject is treated with a sense for the addictive and destructive nature of the affair. In sharp contrast to Hollywood's usual "tragic love story approach" which makes me sick it is so unaccurate.
In the case of High Fidelity, the affair and cheating of the guy's girlfriend was treated somewhat comically. There is a scene with him imagining his girlfriend having sex with the creep and he was clearly having a panic attack.
The scene is offered comically, but all i could do is feel sorry for him cowering in bed with pillow over his face trying to block out the images. High Fidelity does explore the subject well, I just wish it was more sensitive to the hurt that is caused.
Anyhow, I think those two films really are landmark films in that they portray affairs as wasteful and destructive rather than just tragic love stories. I really hate it when a film introduces infidelity and merely offers it up as some romantic bad timing thing. It is so inaccurate. Affairs are hurtful, destructive, and cruel, they aren't love stories. I wish more hollywood writers would figure this out and start telling the truth.
The other work that comes to mind isn't a film its a TV show :
Desperate Housewives
1. Gabby had an affair, and ended up realizing how destructive it was and went back to Carlos. She cheated again on her second husband WITH Carlos, but that gets complicated. In each case the affair was not treated as a love story but more as a childish escape.
2. Linette had an EA with her chef at her restaurant. The chef was shown as a creep. Tom, her husband was the quiet hero throughout the whole affair. Again this showed the affair as a childish escape, even a desperate one.
3. The husband stealer Edie is very often portrayed in a bad light, thank God.
4. Rex cheated on his wife because he was unsatisfied sexually, but it was a prostitute, and again he never left his wife. His wife just never completely forgave him until after he died.
There's more, the whole EA with the creepy Pharmacist etc...all good stuff. I have yet to see an affair on that show presented in a good light. Not always shown as addictive or destructive and hurtful, BUT at least its not just some tragic love story to make you want to puke.
This article was on MSN's homepage. It talks about "workplace" spouses. All of us that have been hurt by workplace affair know the signs all too well now. Too bad we didn't realize it before.
Hi whatdidido. I wanted to see it, but i hear so much flack about the christian content...I am not christian at all...and most of the time non-christians find christian films frustrating to sit thorugh.
My mind is open to try something new, but bible thumping will turn me away quite quickly... :P
I honeslty think that Unfaithful is the most powerful anti-infidelity film out there right now...it blew me away when i saw it.
It COULD have been better, but what they put out there is a head and shoulders above the rest of the fantasy ladden stuff.
Ok, you may not be able to sit through Fireproof then....
I will take a look at Unfaithful, though....just looked up the trailer on youtube...will be tough to watch, but I need to keep killing any fantasy feelings I may still harbor over the OM relationships...this looks like it'll do it.
