AMY PARSONS: These Rentals Show Glimpses of Wives Turned Adulterers

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This week’s movies each deal with adultery. In both cases, the wife is yearning for something different. She finds it in the arms of a man very different from her husband.

And in both cases, the husbands are if not eager to forgive, then at least eager to get their lives back to “normal.”

A Walk on the Moon

Rated: R

It’s the summer of ‘69, a time of discovery and turmoil. A man walked on the moon, 300,000 people gathered on Max Yasner’s farm to hear some music, Teddy Kennedy drove off a bridge in Massachusetts. For the Kantrowicz family, discovery and turmoil are the themes of their summer vacation.

Pearl and Marty haul their kids, fourteen-year-old Alison and younger brother Bobby, and Marty’s mother to a bungalow community in the Catskills. Marty can’t afford to take a week’s vacation from his job as a television repairman, so he pops up for the occasional weekend visit. In any other year this would be a mere blip on the radar for Pearl, but in 1969, with her daughter bursting through puberty, Pearl is feeling a bit reflective.

She was 17 and pregnant when she and Marty married, and Pearl spends a lot of time wishing that her life had turned out differently. In one of those wistful moods, she comes across Walker Jerome, a.k.a. The Blouse Man. Walker hawks clothes and knick knacks out of a converted bus, driving from camp to camp during the summer. Pearl instantly becomes attracted to him, and Walker lets her know that if she ever has an itch he can scratch, he’s ready.

As Neil Armstrong is making one small step for man, Pearl is making a giant leap for her marriage in the back of “The Blouse man’s” bus. They hang out under a waterfall and covered in paint and pot at Woodstock. During the latter expression of free love, they are spotted by Alison.

Marty’s mama senses that Pearl is going astray, and tells her son to get to the Catskills post haste if he wants to save his marriage. She also warns her daughter-in-law, but, clearly fond of the girl, also tries to protect her.

“A Walk on the Moon” is one of those movies that is just plain silly. For one thing, didn’t it rain a lot during Woodstock? Wasn’t there a lot of mud? You’d never know it from the bucolic day that Pearl, the Blouse Man and Alison enjoy, frolicking amongst the hoi polloi. And answer this: if your spouse cheated on you, could you find your way to forgiveness by a slow dance on a porch?

As Pearl, Diane Lane does her best to make us care about Pearl. And in fits and starts we do. Just about anyone can relate to that whole “what if” thing. And everyone has had moments in a relationship where you feel frustrated and dissatisfied. But even Diane Lane, a fine actress, can’t help us understand Pearl’s rash behavior. The best character in this movie is Alison, played by Anna Paquin. You might remember her as the little girl in “The Piano,” for which she won an Oscar when she was about 12. Whether you’re a teenager or someone for whom the teen years are a distant memory, you fully empathize with the confusion, awkwardness and rage that comes with that time of your life.

“A Walk on the Moon” is rated R for profanity, brief nudity, and adult situations. On a scale of 1 to 5, it deserves a 2.5.

The End of the Affair

Rated: R

You know you’re in for a treat when the love triangle in question is a wife, her lover, and God. Such is the case with “The End of the Affair,” adapted from Graham Greene’s novel of the same name and directed by Neil Jordan (“The Crying Game”).

Sarah Miles is married to Henry, an impossibly dull British civil servant. One night at a cocktail party, Maurice Bendrix enters their lives. Maurice is a novelist wishing to consult with Henry about a character in the novel Maurice currently is writing. In the time it takes to clink glasses, Maurice becomes besotted with Sarah, and the two begin a passionate affair.

They enjoy their assignations against the backdrop of World War II, heaving together as bombs drop nearby. One afternoon, after a rendezvous in Maurice’s apartment, he walks out into the hallway just as a bomb explodes, mashing him onto the floor amidst a torrent of broken glass and falling wooden beams. Sarah runs to his side and believes he is dead; returning to the bedroom, she begs God to let him live. If God upholds his end of the deal, Sarah promises to have nothing to do with Maurice again. Imagine her mixture of joy and dismay when Maurice walks back in the room.

What makes “The End of the Affair” an interesting film is its story-telling device. First we see the turn of events through Maurice’s eyes. He doesn’t understand why Sarah leaves him; he thinks she’s disappointed that he lived. Even when they were together, Maurice was obsessed with her and with the thought that she would stop loving him. He is overcome with jealousy, and a few years later, hires a private investigator to spy on her and report back.

One of the investigator’s finds is Sarah’s diary. From this point in the film, we learn what happened from Sarah’s perspective. We see how easy it is for two people to completely misconstrue the same event, one out of jealousy, the other out of despair. We’re being told Sarah’s point of view as filtered through Maurice, a convention Neil Jordan makes work.

Henry, meanwhile, remains a milquetoast. So magnanimous is he that under a looming threat, he welcomes Maurice into his and Sarah’s home, where the three live together. All the while, the presence of the true third corner of the triangle is never forgotten. God is everywhere, as is the search for grace, redemption and forgiveness.

“The End of the Affair” could be just another melodrama, were it not for the performances of Julianne Moore as Sarah (for which she was nominated for an Oscar) and Ralph Fiennes as Maurice. They quietly and passionately convey the joy and torture their characters feel. Stephen Rea, as Henry, doesn’t have much to do, but he gamely tries to give Henry as much dignity as possible.

Rated R for scenes of “adult situations,” “The End of the Affair” merits a 4 on a scale of 1 to 5. After watching it, you may find yourself at the library, checking out Graham Greene’s novel.

Question of the Week

This week’s Question of the Week: What is your song from a movie? “Stayin’ Alive?” “As Time Goes By?” “Que Sera, Sera?” Write me at moviegirl@mindspring.com and let me know.