My thoughts on the movie / Response to the criticism

I really don't get the negative reviews. And I'll address the most common ones in a minute. But before, my opinion of the movie.

1. The storyline was thrilling, including the way those two got together and how it led to their affair. Like, "Is she gonna do it?" "If so, how?" "How will the husband?"

2. The acting was awesome, especially by Diane Lane. Gere was great too. And even that Paul.

3. The sex was sexy. I know, you'll say, "Of course it's sexy, it's right in the word, 'sex'!" Yeah, but not all sex on TV is hot. This one was, very passionate and rapey - the way he just grabbed a hold of her to give her the business, and also her general sluttiness was just hot. Now you might say, "But this isn't a porno, so 'sexy' shouldn't earn the movie extra points!" I disagree, because the movie wasn't trying to be a porno, in that, the sexiness wasn't the main feature of it. So as long it only titillates you passingly and sparsely, then I'd say that's a plus, and that's cool.

4. The last 15 or so minutes got kind of boring. Nothing was happening anymore, and things got a little too sappy for my taste.

So all in all, nice movie.

Now onto the criticisms. They mostly revolved around it being unrealistic. And the three chief accusations of unrealism were:

1. "What woman would jeopardize her marriage like that just for some hot sex with a stranger?" This one is kind of stupid because it could apply to pretty much all extramarital affairs. Yeah, of course straying imperils most relationships! And yet people keep doing it. I say "most" because in some cases the other party knows and they kind of made their peace with it. But I read that statistic the other day that something like a third of married people admitted to having had an affair in the last 10 years of their marriage. You think they don't know there's a good chance things might go awry because of it? Of course they do, but they do it anyway. Diabetics know sweets aren't good, but some of them give in to their sweet tooth every now and then.

2. "If I had a well-to-do, handsome man like that as a husband, I wouldn't look at any other guy twice." Maybe not in the first five years. And yeah, that husband was attractive in his own right. He provided the much-desired security to the woman, both financial and emotional. But when we have too much security, we start craving excitement, and that's what that bad boy loser with an accent provided.

3. "Like a hot guy like this one would go for a middle-aged woman!" First of all, he didn't fall for her or had a full-on relationship with her or anything; he was just mostly screwing her. And second, not all middle-aged women are created equal. If I had to put a percentage, I'd say a solid fifth of women in their forties are attractive. And Diane was - she had nice hair and skin color, and sexy legs and breasts, wasn't wrinkly/saggy, and was pretty feminine in demeanor. So the thought that a good-looking dude in his late twenties could lust over her like he was, come on to her, trying to get her in bed, and finally devour her in said bed (or stairs, or bathroom) isn't far-fetched at all.

So yeah, the realism is just fine as far as I'm concerned. I read one say that that movie romanticized adultery. I guess it kind of did, to a degree, especially at first. But if you watch the whole thing, you'll realize that main takeaway from this was that it was a very bad idea! "It's fun until it isn't" kind of thing.