Movie: A Woman's Guide to Adultery (D)

I've been working through Sean Bean's films and recently watched this gem.

Rose refuses to sleep with married men because it would break her one rule, “Thou shalt not hurt another woman.” (Of course, "Thou shalt not commit adultery" would also suffice, but no one seems to notice.) Despite her outspoken commitment to this rule, she only becomes friends with women who do not share her concerns about cuckolded women: one friend is cheating on her husband with his married business partner, another is the mistress of a married politician, and a third is actively trying to woo her student away from his long-term live-in girlfriend.

When Rose becomes interested in a married man (played by Sean Bean), these so-called friends give her all kinds of bad advice and encourage her to violate her conscience. When she decides to leave the country to escape temptation, one of the friends sneakily arranges for Rose to see the guy one last time, he sweet-talks her, and suddenly she and Mr. Married are hot and heavy in Paris. Rose tries to temper her own desires with her concern for his wife, but that doesn’t last long and she becomes increasingly obsessed and wants him all to herself, falling into that incomprehensible trap of believing that a lying two-timer won’t eventually do TO her what he is doing (to his wife) WITH her.

As the story progresses, each of these women (and even Mr. Married) begin to face real consequences for their choices. Despite the characters’ blatant disregard for the sanctity of marriage, A Woman's Guide to Adultery is a thoughtful and ultimately moral look at how we deceive ourselves and how some desires, if left unchecked, can ultimately destroy us. Grade: B