Two short stories by Andre Dubus, one of the same name and another named Adultery, are forged into a bludgeoningly dull chamber piece centered on two faculty colleagues, with matching scrubby beards for that academic look, who each have an extramarital affair with the other's wife. Director John Curran's pattern of parallel cutting between angst-ridden couples rather emphasizes the feeling of repeated blows from a blunt object. Peter Krause gets markedly shorter shrift than Mark Ruffalo; and Laura Dern goes further over the top than Naomi Watts. All four of them do a lot of surface embossment. (2004) — Duncan Shepherd
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