Saw Unfaithful this afternoon. Dynamite performance by Diane Lane -- that's the first thing about it anyone's going to notice. She's this mid-thirtyish wife who has a disastrous but highly charged affair with a younger man, and she goes well beyond the role; just puts her whole self into it, and fully conveys the range of emotional fragility: stop, don't stop, do it, don't do it, this is insane, let's do it again -- that whole rollercoaster of being addicted to something dangerous and forbidden and fulfilling. She has enormous guts as an actress and it really pays off.

The movie itself -- well, it's an Adrian Lyne film, which are all rather off-putting, mainly because of their look. Film for film, you recognize that same stylized claustrophobia, that same fashion ad aura in every scene. He's always real heavy on shadows to convey emotional tension, shadows and primo movie-star ass. I must admit the sex scenes in Unfaithful are very hot, which is something I don't always like admitting about other films of his I've seen. He likes to push the emotional tension and sometimes it works. It works more often than not on this go-round becsause of his lead actress. She's nominated for Best Actress and I hope she wins, though I suspect that honor will go to Nicole Kidman.