The Affair

32-year-old lady songwriter, on crutches due to polio, begins an affair with a divorced lawyer with two young boys, but she's on her guard (he tells her "I love you" to which she replies, "I know...thank you"). Aaron Spelling-Leonard Goldberg movie-of-the-week gently exploits the reunited Hollywood couple Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner, who had just married for the second time. This is a cordial, polite and sensitive love affair with the usual self-doubts and complications of a new relationship, presented in soft focus. Still, knowing how this union turned out in real life tends to mar one's enjoyment. Wood does well in a handful of dramatic scenes, but when Wagner searches his soul and his conscience it does nothing but make us uneasy. ** from ****