Richard Gere... I only discovered him in Sommersby. I like him there cause he's got the kind of subdued acting which I really prefer. Then I went back to an old movie, An Officer and a Gentleman, and liked him much better... he can look really messy and smelly as a bum kid and then again slick and neat in uniform... so there you have versatility. Although I've heard about Pretty Woman when it showed prior to Sommersby, I didn't really pay attention to it. And then it was featured on HBO and well, if you've been brought up on Mills & Boon books, then you can't really resist a 'knight'... dashing, powerful, yet dealing with his own hurts and fears, oh... and rich too. Runaway Bride was cute and Autumn in New York was heart-wrenching, but it's all really too much of the same thing.

I watched Unfaithful on video. All throughout the movie... when he was a content husband who had everything in his world in order and in place, turning into a clueless hubby whose wife was sleeping around, then the gut feeling, and the clue, and following up on it, and eventually finding out, confronting his wife with the knowledge of her affair after unintentionally yet inevitably killing her lover, getting away with the murder, forgiving and making up with his wife... all throughout it was eyes shut tight, pursed lips, and the lowering of the face while turning it to the side... oh, but you feel him alright. Remember Al Pacino in The Godfather, Part II... in Cuba, where he discovered it was his brother Fredo (not Frodo, that's Lord of the Rings... you dimwit) who collaborated with Mr. Roth's hitman on the job done at Michael Corleone's house? Pacino slumped and was still for a beat, and then slowly his knees gave way and little by little he was bowing down... that was the way he showed his pain... all his body moved. I'm not saying one is better than the other... we're talking about Pacino after all... only that Gere could elicit the same emotions from you with the most minimal of movements. With Pacino, I saw the pain. With Gere, I felt it.

Now when will I get to see his other movies... not to mention Chicago, which will thankfully feature Gere in a totally different genre. Maybe when Papa gets back from Japan.