Ignore reviews with titles like 'Not Worth It' ... probably written by a 12 year old. Beautiful film. Very well acted. Sensitive subject about a middle aged woman In a cold loveless marriage. As a PE teacher arriving at a new school she is seduced in a quite forward and risqué way by her underaged student. She doesn't push him away. On the contrary. His virility and passion awakens something inside her, it makes her feel alive. She doesn't shy away from risky behaviour. We learn she used to be a gymnast but she had to stop practicing this career because she broke her neck while training. This probably changed her whole life and the easiest choice was then to become a PE teacher. Her husband doesn't show lots of affection. Her and her husband's house is a grey modern building made of cold materials: glass and iron. The decoration is also dark and greyish. During a dinner evening with her husband's colleagues we learn he doesn't want them to know that she is working. He is ashamed of her. A PE teaching position probably isn't as glamorous as being a lawyer, or as being a professional athlete for that matter. It is suggested that she and her husband met via a dating app where they were first and foremost sexually attracted to each other. After 5 years of marriage this attraction died out. He has children, so she is his second of third or whatever wife. She has none. During a recital of Tchaikovsky's music for Swan Lake she sobs. This is her Swan song. The Black Swan is dying. Her marriage is dying, her youth is dying, although the youth inside her is still very much alive. She feels a real connection with the boy but the boy eventually doesn't connect with her on an emotional level. She's almost 50 in his eyes. Way too old to have a real relationship with. The woman becomes obsessed and behaves irrational, destroying her career, marriage and her social standing. Along the way we also learn she has a disturbed relationship with her mother, lacking the love we all need, since childhood. No Hollywood happy ending. She is punished but allowed to go her own way while still trying to understand herself what happened and what she has done. Her instincts were stronger than her rational abilities. All or nothing. In the end she got nothing, just sitting there with her small box of material possessions while the world around her just continues to exist.
Review of An Affair
