Affair. You could sit and think of about 100 affair movies. But seldom has a film managed to capture the absolute pain, the harsh realities that come with having to share your life with another person. When do you really feel unsatisfied in your relationship? It could be you, or your companion. Or maybe it’s neither of you. It really is a very difficult issue. Few films have accomplished to describe the many complex facets of having an affair and this article takes a look at some of those films.
Here is the list of top affair movies. You can watch some of these movies on Netflix, Hotstar, or Amazon Prime.
Best Affair Movies
Unfaithful (2002)
IMDb Rating- 6.7/10
Available on- Amazon Prime
Not the best of the affair movies but ‘Unfaithful’ cleverly leads to touching on the themes of love and infidelity in a way that is very impressive and moving than most films. The story involves a couple whose marriage gets on the edge of near-end when the wife becomes very fascinated with a stranger, she encounters one day. The film has an unsettling atmosphere that plays out to the seething stress present throughout the story. It was publicly criticized for dropping its focus on the plot and changing into a juicy melodrama but what it does is endures to capture the emotional and sexual tension resting underneath every human being but of how content they are with their own lives or relationships. It was even recreated in Bollywood as ‘Murder’.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
IMDb Rating- 7.7/10
Available on- Amazon Prime
Ang Lee‘s impressive cowboy romance drama is a searing tale of repressed passions and denied love. The film narrates the story of two shepherds, Ennis and Jack, who form a complex emotional and sexual relationship during their time in the summer in the Wyoming mountains. Ennis would later go on to marry his fiancee and Jack falls in love with a woman to whom he later gets married. Yet, years later they meet up and emotions begin to creep up once again and their married lives would ultimately tear up. The final scene simply could melt the most stone-hearted people.
The Graduate (1967)
IMDb Rating- 8/10
Available on- Amazon Prime
Mike Nichols’ iconic coming of age romance drama addressed for a generation and continues to in ways that make us laugh and cry in equal quantity. ‘The Graduate’ narrates the story of a 21-year-old college graduate who doesn’t really know what to do with his life is infatuated to an older woman, the wife of his father’s business partner. Mrs. Robinson is an afflicted wife, sexually unsatisfied, and emotionally separated from his husband. Changes in relationships run through the movie as we see Benjamin falling for Mrs. Robinson’s daughter and moves away with her in the middle of her marriage on a journey with no real destination. What ‘The Graduate’ cleverly succeeds to depict is the illusion of relationships. Not a single relationship in the movie is complete and they are all flawed in some way or the other. However, in the end, it is only human to crave, to long, and to wish.
The Last Seduction (1994)
IMDb Rating- 7/10
Available on- HBO Max
This neo-noir sensual thriller directed by John Dahl narrates the story of an afflicted married woman who persuades her husband to trade cocaine and later goes away with all the money. She next stops in a small town in Chicago and there she starts a relationship with a man whom she uses for her own benefits. Linda Florentino’s character is a dangerous woman able of doing scary things and holds manic, psychopathic traits yet her seductive charm united with crazy manipulative skills level people. It’s a disgrace Florentino couldn’t win an Oscar that year.
Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001)
IMDb Rating- 7.6/10
Available on- Amazon Prime
‘Y Tu Mama Tambien’ is surely better than most affair movies on the list but the affair isn’t the central thematic focus of the movie. It simply happens to play a part in creating the tale. ‘Y Tu Mama Tambien’ is quite easily one of the most emotionally filling cinematic experiences you’ll ever have. The sort of feelings it elicits is certainly impossible to be put into words. The movie narrates the story of two teenage boys who take a road trip with a married woman. There is a whole lot of sorrow and pain behind the pure energy and liveliness of the film. Alfonso Cuaron captures Mexico in all its anguish and irregularities and sets the movie into a more intense, melancholic exploration of swinging human relationships and self-discovery.
American Beauty (1999)
IMDb Rating- 8.3/10
Available on- Netflix
It takes one some time to acknowledge how layered and complex this movie was. Apparently, it had something to do with one’s age and maturity as an impassioned individual. Indeed, how could a 20-year-old relate to an existential crisis? It’s easy. You can’t. However, with age and experience, you get to master the art of empathy. Plus that’s the focus to recognizing and understanding a richly layered drama like ‘American Beauty’. The movie focuses on a man suffering from a mid-life crisis who falls in love with his teenage daughter’s best friend. His relationship with his wife has become more withdrawn and he is desperate to revive the lost vibe and energy of youth. It’s mysterious yet profoundly tragic because you look at these people and you could practically feel the emotional space between them. A positively unforgettable film that warrants every bit of the praise it gets.
Little Children (2006)
IMDb Rating- 7.5/10
Available on- Amazon Prime
Directed by Todd Field, this deep, painful drama narrates the story of a woman unhappy with her mundane life after marriage. She learns that her husband is addicted to online pornography. She later begins a relationship with a married law student, Brad. Brad is living an apparently happy married life but is deeply torn inside by his own conflicts and passions. Their relationship becomes increasingly complex and passionate as they begin to understand each other’s pain, resentment, disputes, and wants. It’s a shocking, obscure examination of isolation, desire, isolation, and repressed sentiments and love.
Amores Perros (2000)
IMDb Rating- 8.1/10
Available on- Amazon Prime
Alejandro Inarritu‘s wildly ambitious feature film debut tells three interconnected stories that deal with love, affair, sin, and salvation. In the first story, we have three characters, Susana, Ramiro, and Octavio. Susana is Octavio’s sister in law but he is crazily in love with her and desperate to get her out of the hell they’ve been living in. Octavio wins many dog fights and leads to piling up money so that he can run away with her and arranges for Ramiro to get beaten up. Nevertheless, things take a turn when Ramiro goes back and takes all the money as Susan ends up running away with him. ‘Amores Perros’ is a thematically driven story that interweaves distinctive tales about various human lives in Mexico City. The natural emotional energy of every story makes for a harrowing cinematic experience as Inarritu masterfully infuses the film with a touch of understanding so profound and overwhelming that it completely soaks you in emotions by the end.
The Painted Veil (2007)
IMDb Rating- 7.5/10
Available on- Amazon Prime
What’s so unique about ‘The Painted Veil’ is that it nevermore really takes sides. The movie depicts them as two wonderfully flawed human beings trying to cope up with the difficulties of marriage. Walter is a reserved introvert who doesn’t really know to show his love for his charming young wife who is longing for that sense of warmth and care. Walter’s growing emotional detachment causes Kitty to develop a relationship with the more charismatic Charley. Walter finds this and confronts his wife and threatens her to divorce or if she doesn’t then accompany him to a plague-infected village in China. Both Edward Norton and Naomi Watts are eminent as they portray their characters with incredible refinement and astonishing subtlety and elevate the film to a classic stature.
Revolutionary Road (2008)
IMDb Rating- 7.3/10
Available on- Netflix
Few affair movies have succeeded to portray the pain and harshness of love in a way that utterly devastates you in its unnerving honesty. ‘Revolutionary Road’ is savagely unflinching in its depiction of the realities of marriage. Frank and April, a blissfully married couple, start to taste the bitterness of marriage when their dreams and ambitions clash as they gradually retract themselves into a shell of obsession, dishonesty, and hatred. Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio are beautiful in their depiction of the lead couple and make them appear real and utterly convincing. These are true, flawed human beings. Frank and April could be any of us. This could quite be our own life, our actions, and our choices. Also, that is when you realize how powerful a movie could be.
Â
The English Patient (1996)
IMDb Rating- 7.4/10
Available on- Amazon Prime
This Oscar-winning movie has received bad reviews over the years for being a bit melodramatic. Moreover, while that’s right, it’s also true that affairs like the one portrayed in the movie between a romantic woman who settled when she married a friend, and an amoral explorer can have disastrous repercussions. And how can one forget that scene where they’re doing it in a hidden corner of a building while there’s a party going on!
Hannah and her Sisters (1986)
IMDb Rating- 7.9/10
Available on- Amazon Prime
Woody Allen got the complexities of relationships and the inherent frailties of human nature better than most filmmakers. His affair movies have been about people. People seeking to find meanings in their own lives but don’t really know what they want from life. ‘Hannah and Her Sisters’ is one of Woody Allen’s most sophisticated and funnily tragic films that explore the faults of married life. The movie narrates the lives of three sisters and their partners over a period of two years. The narrative slowly exposes and peels layers off of its characters as we see Hannah’s husband Elliot getting attracted to her sister Holly. Elliot is split between Lee and Hannah and is having a hard time trying to figure out what love really means. Matters get further complicated as Woody Allen’s character Mickey, Hannah’s ex-husband, tries to repair his broken relationship with Hannah’s sister Holly. It’s a very contemplative film about the intricacies of love and the fickle nature of human relationships.
The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
IMDb Rating- 7.6/10
Available on- Amazon Prime
‘The Bridges of Madison County is an astonishingly nuanced and complexly layered drama that examines the themes of affair and love. It narrates the story of a married woman who falls in love with a photographer but is obliged to make the decision of her life in a span of just a couple of days. Francesca is living an apparently happy married life but deep inside she is a troubled soul having to live with the fact that she’s been living all her life for the people around her and not for herself. The performances are exceedingly brilliant and Clint Eastwood‘s direction gives the film a distinctively human feel that makes it such an emotionally powerful experience.
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
IMDb Rating- 7.4/10
Available on- Netflix
A stone-cold classic, Stanley Kubrick‘s last masterpiece is a deeply disturbing examination of marriage, sexuality, affair, and love. Bill is outraged when his wife admits that she once fantasized about a naval officer they had met on vacation. Overwhelmed, Bill later embarks on a journey into the darkest pits of sexuality as he discovers an unnamed underground occult society. Visually beautiful and thematically complex, ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ creates a dream-like world choke-full of denial and delves deep into the devastating realities of marriage, passion, and desire. The work is impeccable and Kubrick’s strange surreal approach turns the film into a deeply disturbing introspective journey.
Match Point (2005)
IMDb Rating- 7.6/10
Available on-Â Amazon Prime
This one of the most famous affair movies. The extremely first sex scene between secret lovers, portrayed by Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, in this movie happens in a wheat field in the rain and their consequent hookups (before the affair turns fatal) are fairly hot. There’s a bunch of shirt ripping and blindfolding and heavy breathing between the two very pretty actors.
Indecent Proposal (1993)
IMDb Rating- 6/10
Available on- Netflix
Everyone likes to believe that they and their bodies can’t be bought, but many of us watch this movie and wonder what it would be like to be wanted to the extent that someone is willing to pay $1 million for one night. We’re also interested in what it seems like to roll around on a bed littered with Benjamins. Demi Moore portrays half of a broke married couple (hubby is played by Woody Harrelson) proposed by a wealthy man (Robert Redford) who makes them an offer they don’t deny. This movie has somewhat been remade as ‘Hate Story 3’.
Chloe (2009)
IMDb Rating- 6.3/10
Available on- YouTube
Another one of the famous affair movies, Chloe has Julianne Moore portraying a woman who suspects that her college professor husband (Liam Neeson) is cheating on her with a student (Amanda Seyfried). This student is an escort on the side because student debt is real, so the wife hires her, and that’s when things get exciting.
The Other Woman (2014)
IMDb Rating- 6/10
Available on- Hotstar
This one of the funniest affair movies you’ll watch. Game of Thrones alum Nikolai Coster-Waldau going naked on-screen is never a bad thing, but this comedy is brief about sexy times and more about getting revenge on a cheating dude. Cameron Diaz plays as a woman who thought she was in a comprehensive relationship until she found out her guy was married. She pulls up with his wife (Leslie Mann) and a third woman he’s been dating (Kate Upton) to make him pay big time.
Fatal Attraction (1987)
IMDb Rating- 6.9/10
Available on- YouTube
It’s astonishing, but Fatal Attraction hardly has any sex in it. It’s really a cautionary tale about cheating, especially with an unbalanced person who is not above boiling a pet bunny and threatening to kill an entire family. Michael Douglas portrays the deceiving husband, and Glenn Close portrays the woman who goes bananas after their one-weekend cheat fest.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
IMDb Rating- 7.1/10
Available on- Amazon Prime
Among all the gorgeous actors, all the erotic scenes, and the wonderful setting of Barcelona, this movie is endlessly watchable. Two best friends, a single free spirit (Scarlett Johansson), and the other an engaged, then married suppressed person (Rebecca Hall) spend the summer in Spain. Essentially, they take turns bedding a Spanish artist (Javier Bardem) and his crazy ex-wife (Penelope Cruz).
Addicted (2014)
IMDb Rating- 5.2/10
Available on- Netflix
Prosperous businesswoman Zoe Reynard (Sharon Leal) appears to have a charmed life. She has a fine, caring husband (Boris Kodjoe), two wonderful children, and a growing career. Still, as pure as her life might look to other people, Zoe is intimately tormented by nymphomania. Her demand for constant sexual gratification leads her into a secretive existence one that, eventually, puts her family, work, and life on the edge. It is based on a novel by Zane.
No matter what the reason, you should watch these affair movies that are bound to set your screen, couch, and even your house on fire. You can also check out these movies that we wouldn’t recommend with your parents around.?
