For some reason this film really affected me and I personally think most viewers as well as possibly the filmmakers ( although I suspect they didn't and are just playing a big joke on you all) have missed the entire point of this film. This movie is not supposed to be taken seriously. From the opening "big wind " shot its obvious that we are in a hyper-real world. Richard Gere's character hasn't done anything to warrant putting him in the kind of situation he finds himself in. He's a nice guy who cares about his family. Diane Lane is having a fling. Why ? Who knows? I guess she's caught up in the moment. The third act is when the black comedy aspects come into play. Gere leaves as much evidence as he destroys and on top of everything else puts the corpse in the trunk of his car and then , apparently, dumps it in the town dump in his own hometown miles away from the crime scene. On top of everything else he and the arcass get stuck in the elevator which should be a big tip off that we're not in the real world. Yes, the ending is a cheat and ambiguous but it really isn't. Watch the scenes with the NYPD homicide detectives closely. They aren't dummies and its obvious they are on to something. Based on the time line even with an ambigous ending its obvious these guys are coming back, probably on New Years Eve and Gere is going to be arrested. He's their suspect. They've got all kinds of evidence and from the moment they enter the picture its apparent they aren't just fishing. They know what happened here. Director Adrian Lyne just doesn't show it to the viewer but his detectives know who committed this murder. They know it from that first visit.
Review of Unfaithful
