The Other Woman
1 Waffle!

At the very tail end of the credits, the makers of The Other Woman put up a little factoid informing those of us who remained in the theater that this movie helped employ 13,000 people! Sure, you probably think I am going to make some joke here about how maybe one of them should have been a writer, but wouldn’t that be hypocritical of me when I tell you this movie is overly predictable?

Cameron Diaz stars as Carly – a tough as nails lawyer who thinks she finally may have met the man of her dreams, Mark (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). Unfortunately, Carly discovers in the most embarrassing and painful way possible, Mark is married to Kate (Leslie Mann). The two ladies are quite upset to find out the truth about this dog, and form a strange bond that leads to friendship. However, Kate and Carly are absolutely fed up and had enough of these shenanigans when they discover Mark has a third lady on the side, Amber (Kate Upton).

Now, it’s time for revenge.

The Other Woman is billed as this great revenge film, but that portion of the picture is not big enough nor creative enough to make this an enjoyable movie. Maybe it just lacks a good Taylor Swift song to give it that vibe of vengeance it needs so badly, but I think it’s more than that.

Writer Melissa Stack and director Nick Cassavetes spend too much time establishing the premise of the film and the relationships, and not enough time and energy giving us the laughs we need. It’s almost a full hour before Kate and Carly formulate their revenge plan! In the meantime, Diaz and Mann desperately are trying to squeeze every ounce of comedy they can out of a fairly basic premise that needs better plotting and pacing.

Then, Stack and Cassavetes have all sorts of problems with the movie’s tone. They want us to feel some emotion and sympathy for the ladies who have been wronged in the worst way possible, so they lay on the heavy stuff and drama, which isn’t needed because every human being in the theater will feel some sympathy for these people. Yet, Stack and Cassavetes also want The Other Woman to be a silly, slapstick comedy which often relies on juvenile, gross out humor that dehumanizes the characters. It’s a classic case of two different tones not meshing well together.

Diaz and Mann do what they can to keep us interested, and put in performances much better than what you can see in the script, while Kate Upton seems to have been typecast as the gorgeous blonde wearing a bikini and running on the beach in slow motion (I should lose my Man Card for making that sound like a negative).

You’ll get a few laughs out of The Other Woman, but not much else.

The Other Woman is rated PG-13 on appeal for mature thematic material, sexual references and language.