The Affair (2004)

Director:

Carl Colpaert

Writers:

Carl Colpaert (writer)
Lisa Larrivee (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

In Topanga Canyon, in a beautiful but sparely appointed house, Jean Mackenzie feels like she's suffocating in her marriage to Paul...

Plot Keywords:

Affair | Architect | Marriage | Bohemian | Pregnancy

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Kelsey Oldershaw	...	Jean
Andy Mackenzie	...	Viggo
Horacio Le Don	...	Paul
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Stephanie Bentley	...	Starr
Ronnie Gene Blevins	...	Donny
Thomas Brooks	...	Cop
Maree Cheatham	...	Charlene
Barbara Kerr Condon	...	Grams
Charles Fathy	...	Eric
Elizabeth Jean	...	Claudia
Kat Ogden	...	Gina
David Selby	...	Vincent
Ron Vitalia	...	Businessman

Also Known As:

Topanga (USA) (working title)
Topanga Canyon (USA) (working title)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Cineville

Quotes:

Eric: Women never know what they want. All they know is to test the nest. And if the nest is good, they'll stay. And if they see some sign of weakness, they're out of there. They test you all day long until you die.

A very well-crafted dramatic love story.

I was fortunate enough to catch a screening of this film, which I heard had just garnered several top awards at the Worldfest in Houston. I was particularly anxious to see the movie after learning it was helmed by Carl Colpaert, a talented producer/director originally from Belgium who has had the unique "Midas Touch" of discovering unknown talent and giving them their first big break. In fact, Kevin Spacey, Salma Hayek, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Renee Zellweger are just some of the "unknowns" who got their start in Colpaert's films and went on to stellar careers. THE AFFAIR is a very well-crafted dramatic love story, reminiscent of the simpler love story films of the 60s and 70s. Parts of the film which take place on the road reminded me of Stanley Donen's classic 1967 film TWO FOR THE ROAD, with Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. The beautiful Kelsey Oldershaw plays Jean, a young woman who constantly seeks an ever-elusive fulfillment in her life, largely due to a traumatic childhood experience. She is married to Paul, played by the talented Horatio Ledon, who is overbearing, authoritative, and seeks to control every facet of Jean's life. Jean finds a breath of fresh air in a hot affair with Viggo, played by Andy Mackenzie, a product of Topanga's Bohemian set who is the exact opposite of Paul. Viggo is like a wild stallion, untamed, unfettered, and eager to fill the gaping void in Jean's life. The film offers a quite surprising, non-traditional view of how Paul and Jean deal with this, for lack of a better term, bizarre love triangle. The film was shot beautifully on HD, with a classy fade-to-black cut after each sequence, to give one the sense of watching individual vignettes, Chekovian "slices of life," strung together in a linear yet loose and free fashion. With their excellent performances, Oldershaw, Ledon, and Mackenzie definitely have a great shot at joining the pantheon of Hollywood stars that Colpaert has had the knack of discovering in the past.