An Unfinished Affair (1996)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Bad script and writing makes this a sometimes interminable movie to watch. How long will it take the victims to figure out the scheme of the vicious girl friend? And how dense can people be? This sweet young thing in the likes of Jennie Garth is so obvious it would take an idiot or rather horny devil to figure her out. She's that obvious. Garth's performance is a one level pursed lips performance. No chemistry. I'd drop her too. Tim Matheson, usually a good actor, is stuck in a vacant role of a husband who stands around looking mystified. Even to the point of his wife and son losing it all. Peter Facinelli is not too bad as another victim of our shady little ingénue. Bears a strong resemblance to Dan Futterman. Nice to see Georgann Johnson back on the tube. Since days of Mr. Peepers. She and Michael Fairman play grandparents, if you can imagine that. Also nice to see Leigh Taylor Young back on the screen. Looking very lovely and playing the wife with a nice quality you can't blame anyone for wanting her instead of the little witch. Rod Hardy (no relation to Andy) directed as best he could with a lousy script. Three stars for Young, Johnson and Facinelli. Sorry Tim. Saw this again and stick by my original critique. Garth is dreadful, even more so second time around. Tim still the loser and the wonderful likes of Johnson, Taylor-Young and Facinelli hold their own. Waste of time. Actress Garth has one expression throughout the film. Half opened mouth with protruding teeth. You keep wondering if she can close her trap. Or is she bucktooth? Not pretty to look at. Hope we don't have to suffer at her abilities again.

...yet I had hoped Sheila would get away with the crime AND the painting. Alex is a cold man just as his son said. I felt sorry for the son but had hoped somehow his FATHER would get implicated in the crime. Just as Alex's wife's mother said, the women tend to get hurt the most when it comes to involvement with married men. Alex did wrong by sending his father-in-law's most valuable art work to his mistress yet felt he could get away with doing what he wanted...in typical wealthy man fashion. When he would not get what he wanted (the art work) back from his ex-mistress, he resorted to crime and violence paying someone else to do his dirty work. Sad thing is the wifelet looked like she was going to take a man back who thought so little of her to sleep with someone else while it was thought she would die. I enjoyed the movie but had hoped for more of a "just deserts" ending for a change rather than the Family Reunion at the end.

It's probably a mistake to think about an actor's characters in comparison with his/her real life. For example, on-screen, Tom Cruise has given performances and played characters whom you can admire, and who conduct themselves in a normal fashion. So much for roles versus real life.However, this is one film which I stumbled upon, and had never heard of before. I've seen Tim Matheson several times, and he's a credible A-minus or B-list actor. Likewise for Leigh Taylor-Young. I wasn't familiar with either of the two younger leads (Jennie Garth, Peter Facinelli), not being a viewer of the programs in which they've appeared. So I looked-up their backgrounds on this site, and could not help but compare their roles in this flick with their real lives.They are both age-appropriate for their roles in this picture, as are Matheson and Taylor-Young (not nearly always the case). They've been married in real life for 6+ years, and have three children - two since marriage, and one listed as born about six months after she and her first husband divorced.So it would seem that since this first child was a result of relationship at the time this story was filmed, I realized that Ms. Garth's interest in Peter was actually real, not constructed to make his fictional father (Matheson) jealous as in the film.In this story, to describe Matheson's performance as "wooden" would constitute an insult to stately redwoods, and even oaks, pines and cedars everywhere. Taylor-Young had little to do, and all of the events which occurred stemmed from the scorned woman. In "Lifetime's" files, if the drawers are labeled "Scorned Woman," "Murderous (or 'Sociopathic') Neighbor," "Secret Past Life," "Woman Out to Take-Over Her Best Friend's Husband and Life" -- you would probably find 97% of the network's film records.Here it was impossible to generate the least amount of empathy, sympathy or any feeling for Matheson's character. You could feel some for Facinelli, but then realizing that he and his real-life partner were playing these roles, you could imagine that they had to stifle laughter as she plied her wicked ways and he played the clueless pawn of his dad's former lover.When you see many of the Lifetime flicks, it helps to be able to enjoy them for their fascinating characteristics as well as the often limited amount of strong characterization, drama, or memorable story lines. This one rates perhaps three stars for the latter, but another three for fascinating elements.

Sheila Hart sacrifice so much in the case, ended up in jail. This is because she is falling for the wrong man, the man who doesn't really love her at all. Poor Hart lose herself completed in front of the man she really love. Everything unexpected thing will start when human wanted to revenge, hatred to someone and betrayal.Woman are always being hurt the most in a broken relationship. I think Garth and Alex should be meant together. Alex betrayed her so much which lead to the start of the movie. Why Alex would dump Sheila in their relationship? In a nutshell, the movie is so interesting with the story line, just that the ending is not expected.