What is it about the affair? It’s steamy, it’s hidden, it’s secretive. It makes people want to see the movie, maybe? Many people lead normal lives. They work hard, they save towards retirement, and they do not cheat on their spouses. However, sometimes this can be boring. A movie is the great escape for the lull of standard living. It’s a way for the mind to go somewhere else.
Cheating movies are popular because they allow a nice man or woman to imagine what it would be like to be with someone else. They give the viewer an opportunity to dream, and to relate to the person who is cheating, or to be mad and be sympathetic to the person cheated on. They spur debate, they challenge our viewpoints, they offer consolation to those who have actually cheated. There is no end to the reasons why cheating movies become big box office hits.
Here are my choices for the top ten cheating movies:
1. Unfaithful with Diane Lane and Richard Gere. I love any movie with Diane Lane. She looks like she’s in her early thirties yet she’s in her forties. She seems always to play an interesting role. Richard Gere has gotten some bad press over the years, but I have always admired his work as well. Put the two together and you’ve got a passionate love affair, right? Well, for some reason Richard Gere played the family man in this movie, an unpredicted role for him. I would have seen him more as the affair person. However, the way they made him look, he didn’t hold a candle to the man that Diane Lane ended up actually cheating on him with (Paul Martel).
I don’t know of many steamier scenes in a movie than the one where Diane Lane and Paul Martel go all the way. Any wives that would never, ever even think of cheating on their husbands can delight in this scene and the entire rest of the movie. However, just be careful things don’t go too far!
2. Fatal Attraction. I didn’t personally care for this movie as much as Unfaitful, but everyone else did. I think this is the number one most popular cheating movie of all times. It’s the standard that all other cheating movies are compared to. Glenn Close played quite a part as the homewrecking office female.
3. Disclosure. Demi Moore and Michael Douglas made quite the pair in this movie. Although Michael Douglas said no to Demi Moore’s advances, the movie still is about cheating because he did kiss her before they stopped. He cheated on his wife. This movie shows what happens when a woman doesn’t get sexually what she is looking for. Guys, beware!
4. Indecent Proposal. Demi Moore gets another spot on the top ten list. I really love all of her movies as well. You may ask how this movie is included, because Woody Harrelson knew that Demi Moore was going to cheat on him, because he was allowing it. They needed the money to pay back the debt he incurred by gambling. Sorry, Woody, you shouldn’t make your wife part of a solution to your gambling problem. This movie shows what happens when the bond of marriage is broken, even if both parties mutually consent to it.
5. Legends of the Fall. This was one of Brad Pitt’s earlier movies. Do you recall, the tale of three brothers? The first brother meets the woman, and she becomes his fiance’. Then, when he brings her home to his family, she falls for the second brother. The first brother then dies in battle, so second brother gets the gal. Then, second brother has all sorts of issues within, and leaves the gal alone for many years. She finally gives up waiting for him, and gets with third brother. Then, second brother returns and she is still in love with him. But now, it’s too late. What a tale.
6. English Patient. This movie is perhaps the saddest cheating movie of all. It has such a story behind it. The woman is cheating on her husband, and he discovers this. She goes off with the other man, and their plane wrecks. The lover has to go find help to try and save her, but he doesn’t make it back in time. So it was all for nothing. Of course, there’s much more to this love story that involves cheating, but this is the gist of it.
7. The Color Purple. The Color Purple is a movie to watch for many reasons, and cheating could be the least important reason of all. However, the cheating in this movie was almost accepted as the way people did things in that day and time. That certainly doesn’t make it right. Whoopi Goldberg had a husband, Danny Glover. She didn’t pick him, he just basically bought her from her family. Of course, he just wants her to do his cooking and cleaning and take care of his children. It’s no surprise when he then takes on a mistress, and she even comes into their home when she gets sick and stays with them. Whoopi ends up becoming attracted to the woman as well, and it is insinuated that perhaps she has an affair of her own.
8. What Lies Beneath, starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer. This was a pretty spooky and realistic movie, as far as cheating movies go. Of course, I wouldn’t necessarily believe that a girl could send signs from the dead, but I also wouldn’t dismiss it totally. Michelle Pfeiffer looks really pale and scary in this movie, and it makes the whole thing all the more believable. Harrison Ford apparently always doesn’t play the good guy.
9. Random Hearts, with Harrison Ford. Okay, now Harrison Ford get a chance to redeem himself. He was the one cheated on. Imagine them finding your wife at the bottom of the ocean, with another man on a plane that crashed? That would be awful.
10. Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Okay, in this movie, she gets really mad. She’s supported her husband through thick and then, and then he wants to throw her out and be with someone else? This is a great story of revenge for someone who was cheated on.
