Plot: Holly (Claire Forlani ) has told her husband she is off on another business trip, but there’s no conference this time. Instead she plans to meet her side piece Everett (Jake Abel) and bask in a weekend of romance, lust, and escape from her normal life. Once she arrives at the hotel room, she finds a note and some supplies, so she slides on a blindfold and slips into the handcuffs. This leads to a rough, even forceful sexual encounter that scares Holly a little. She assumes Everett has gone too far, but when her lover leaves the room, he passes Everett, bound to a chair. But who had their way with Holly and why is Everett tied up? Soon both Everett and Holly are trapped in a sadistic game, but who is pulling the strings?

Entertainment Value: If you’re going to make a convoluted thriller, you might as well as throw in as many twists and reveals as possible, which is just what An Affair to Die For happens to do. This is just one twist after another, to the point where nothing makes sense and you just wonder how in the hell the movie plans to wrap things up, given how outlandish the narrative has become. To me, this is great news, as I love a ridiculous and beyond convoluted thriller and that is what we have here, but some prefer a more grounded approach. So if you need your stories to make sense, that doesn’t happen here, but if you just want to be taken a wild, melodramatic ride that’s overloaded with twists and turns, you’re in luck. This one also has some prominent erotic threads, so there’s some sex scenes and given the cheating wife premise, there’s drama and dysfunction to burn as well. I wouldn’t call anyone here a good person, but it is fun to watch shady folks banter and try to keep ahead of each other. And with all the constant twists, you just have to hold on and hope the character you dislike the least comes out on top. I had fun with this one and while I can see why it might be too ludicrous for some viewers, fans of erotic thrillers and outrageous narratives should find enough here to make An Affair to Die For worth a peek.

The cast manages to take the material seriously, even as it unravels into mind boggling twists and turns. I think this adds to the melodrama, since the performances are so sincere and serious, which in turn makes the lack of logic seem even more outlandish by comparison. The drama is dialed up, sometimes to over the top levels, but not insane tier melodramatic chaos. Claire Forlani is the most fun to watch, as she pinballs between emotional swings and shows a dark side often. She really does get put through a lot in this character and she makes it work, though the material does ask her to make some real jumps at times. Forlani has the dramatic chops to make the emotional beats hit, while she seems to have fun in the more melodramatic moments as well, in a rock solid overall performance. The cast also includes Jake Abel, Titus Welliver, Nathan Cooper, and Melina Matthews.

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