A Woman's Guide to Adultery

This movie is worth watching just to see Sean Bean's butt which he so graciously exposes in his scenes of his character's adulterous affair. All the main characters are involved in affairs and have different consequences. Theresa Russel's acting is not her greatest in this film. I've seen her in other movies where she is pretty decent (Black Widow). Theresa Russel and Sean Bean are the only actors in this film with any name recognition. Better movies about adultery would be Unfaithful or even Fatal Attraction. At best this is a good soap opera but I think the acting fails to deliver to truly make it a quality film. I only watched this movie because it had Sean Bean in it.

I was entertained by this soap opera. - Worth watching if you like a romantic drama.

Two of the four women's stories captured me the most: Rose's story and Helen's story. I ended up feeling really bad for Rose in the end. Helen I felt she got what she deserved even though she is likeable.

And yes we get to see Sean Bean's cute naked butt in this one... he's HOT as usual.

8.5/10

This movie is a long. This movie is dull. It could have been interesting, and it probably should have been interesting, but it tried to do too much and you stop caring at all.

The main character, Rose, thinks that committing adultery is the worst crime. And yet *all* of her friends are doing just that. What does this say about society? At any rate, she falls for her photography teacher (Who wouldn't? Sean Bean plays yet another jerk, but he's a good looking jerk) who just happens to be the brother of her closest friend (who's having an affair with a politician.) She finds out before they actually begin their affair that he's married, though he doesn't volunteer this information.

So they have an affair and then she feels betrayed because when his wife get pregnant, he returns to her. Huh? She, in her own words, shouldn't have been having an affair to begin with. And she gets really really annoyed that he won't take her on a ferry ride.

Eventually her friend's marriage disintegrates in a subplot that no one cares about but it does have a rather fun scene in which a stereo goes through a window.

...is Sean Bean. How did an actor of his caliber allow himself to get trapped in this mess? My God, this is bad! The writing is something out of an afternoon soapie (though even those shows have enough pride not to hand out this many clichés, usually). Most of the acting--except Bean, whose professionalism apparently extends even to trash like this--is almost comically lousy. The only name I recognize (other than Sean Bean) is Amanda Donahoe, whose performance is so cheap it makes her crappy work on "LA Law" look like an Academy Award winner. None of the other actors deliver anything more than dull-eyed recitations of their bad lines, which makes me wonder: Are these actors all this bad, really, or are they this bad only because the script sucks so completely? All I can say here is that if you're a Sean Bean completist, as I am, you'll want to watch this--and then check it off your list. Be shocked that he ever agreed to be connected to such dreck. If you're not a Bean freak--avoid, avoid, avoid, because minus Bean, this has absolutely NOTHING to recommend it.

So, OK, I'm heading to Paris in 3 weeks and if there's an advertisement for that city, it's this movie. Can't wait to ride that 'tacky' Bateau down the Seine, but won't have a hunk like Bean with me. So, having had a few affairs myself in the 3 marriages I'm a veteran of, I loved this morality tale. Cause they're exactly right: that moment of ezxctasy (OK, those moments) aren't worth the horror of the after-affects. The pain that's caused to all, except maybe the focal point is just too much. As usual, I have to point out the illogicalities: so Rose is hurting Sean by exposing him (and his cute little naked butt) to the class....she doesn't think that someone will inform his wife? Huh? And the suspense when she goes to his house with the photos, wow, haven't felt that nervous in a long time. But in all these adulteries, you wonder, "What were they thinking of?"

Trying to put myself back then, I remember the boredom of marriage, and the excitement of stealing a married man, but it seems all so tawdry now. And again, not worth the outcomes at all. If you get him, here's the point: You SHOULD have to marry him for that night when he comes home with perfume all over saying, "Babe, the chickens done come home to roost."!!!