Books and movies about infidelity?
December 8, 2015 6:09 AM Subscribe
Can anyone recommend a book or movie about what a woman goes through when her husband has been unfaithful?
Bonus points for reasonably modern-day portrayals, and double-bonus if the husband is genuinely remorseful and they both want to reconcile and rebuild.
Non-fiction and documentary is OK.
Bonus points for reasonably modern-day portrayals, and double-bonus if the husband is genuinely remorseful and they both want to reconcile and rebuild.
Non-fiction and documentary is OK.
I don't get double points for this but In the Mood for Love is a beautiful and heartbreaking example.
posted by janey47 at 6:28 AM on December 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by janey47 at 6:28 AM on December 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
The One I Love. Quirky, but one of my favorite movies ever and fits this description.
posted by sweetkid at 6:52 AM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by sweetkid at 6:52 AM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
You may be interested in the show Big Love, which comes at this from an unusual angle. (It's about a modern Mormon family practicing polygamy.) The show is pretty good about portraying the difficulty for the sister wives in sharing a husband but working towards a common harmony, and confronts the infidelity part in a more straightforward way when they consider adding a fourth wife to the family.
More of a time investment than a movie but I think it achieves what you're looking for.
posted by phunniemee at 7:26 AM on December 8, 2015
More of a time investment than a movie but I think it achieves what you're looking for.
posted by phunniemee at 7:26 AM on December 8, 2015
Someone At A Distance by Dorothy Whipple. It's from the 1950s, and is a bit old-fashioned in some of its assumptions, but I l still found it a really powerful psychological study of the impact of infidelity on the wife. J.B. Priestley compared Whipple to Jane Austen and I think she has some of Austen's subtlety and realism.
posted by Aravis76 at 7:36 AM on December 8, 2015
posted by Aravis76 at 7:36 AM on December 8, 2015
I'm just about to read Heartburn, the autobiographical novel by screenwriter Nora Ephron. A major theme is her husband's affair while she's pregnant with their second child. Not sure it has much reconciling/rebuilding, but otherwise fits the criteria, and everyone I know who has read it loved it.
posted by amerrydance at 7:40 AM on December 8, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by amerrydance at 7:40 AM on December 8, 2015 [4 favorites]
On Showtime tv: "The Affair."
Uncomfortable, disturbing sometimes, and excellent.
posted by fivesavagepalms at 8:41 AM on December 8, 2015 [2 favorites]
Uncomfortable, disturbing sometimes, and excellent.
posted by fivesavagepalms at 8:41 AM on December 8, 2015 [2 favorites]
+1 for Heartburn (book over movie)
posted by Sweetie Darling at 9:06 AM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Sweetie Darling at 9:06 AM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yes to The Affair, but it's not really until the current second season that you get the wife's voice. The first season is all about the affair from the perspective of the husband and side piece.
One of the things I love about The Affair is that it often tells the same story from two points of view, and the details (clothing worn, words said, sequence of events) is frequently different based on the perspective. It's wild to watch two people's versions of the same event and how they are perceived so differently by each person.
posted by archimago at 9:09 AM on December 8, 2015
One of the things I love about The Affair is that it often tells the same story from two points of view, and the details (clothing worn, words said, sequence of events) is frequently different based on the perspective. It's wild to watch two people's versions of the same event and how they are perceived so differently by each person.
posted by archimago at 9:09 AM on December 8, 2015
These 3 Harrison Ford movies all involve an unfaithful man:
What Lies Beneath
Random Hearts
Six Days Seven Nights
posted by Michele in California at 11:21 AM on December 8, 2015
What Lies Beneath
Random Hearts
Six Days Seven Nights
posted by Michele in California at 11:21 AM on December 8, 2015
Heartburn is a terrific, modern story and compulsively readable but there's no long term reconciliation involved.
posted by fingersandtoes at 11:51 AM on December 8, 2015
posted by fingersandtoes at 11:51 AM on December 8, 2015
The novel and miniseries of Mildred Pierce have her reconciling with her philanderous 1st husband after she has been egregiously cheated on by her 2nd.
posted by brujita at 11:58 AM on December 8, 2015
posted by brujita at 11:58 AM on December 8, 2015
Its not the whole movie, but Emma Thompson's role in Love Actually. The scene where she figures out her husband is cheating on her, well, its spot on, at least for me.
posted by PJMoore at 1:22 PM on December 8, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by PJMoore at 1:22 PM on December 8, 2015 [4 favorites]
TV? The Good Wife starts right out with the wife standing by her politician husband as he publicly discloses infidelity. It's a core part of the 1st couple years, at least. I watched it when it came out, am not re-watching from the start on Amazon prime. It's pretty darn good tv.
posted by theora55 at 2:53 PM on December 8, 2015
posted by theora55 at 2:53 PM on December 8, 2015
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posted by mochapickle at 6:26 AM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]