The
Other Woman
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.
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