Written by Lola Sterret.
Although labelled as a romantic-comedy, The Other Woman is a film more focused on exploring the sheer bizarreness of female friendship, rather than a burgeoning romantic relationship between the two main characters.
The Other Woman, from director Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook, My Sister’s Keeper), introduces us to the character of Carly Whitten (Cameron Diaz): a generic, high powered attorney type who is juggling men, relationships and work. On a night out Carly meets Mark King (Game of Thrones’ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and the two embark on a seemingly perfect relationship. However, after driving to his house to surprise him, Carly inadvertently stumbles upon Mark’s wife Kate, played by Leslie Mann, and both Carly’s and Kate’s idyllic lives with Mark come to a screeching halt. After Kate basically forces Carly to be her friend the two discover that Mark is having yet another affair. Kate and Carly enlists the help of the newest mistress Amber (Kate Upton) to wreak havoc and revenge upon Mark’s life, obviously hijinks ensue.
The Other Woman is a silly, ridiculous and at times incredibly stupid movie. With that being said, The Other Woman was never going to be an intellectual juggernaut of a film; rather, it plays to its strengths, never takes itself too seriously and is strangely charming. Viewers who are looking for a movie filled to the brim with clever witticisms, quips and one-liners should probably give this movie a miss. But by relying on physical comedy rather than comedy through its dialogue, the movie manages to be funny and there were quite a few deep-belly laugh moments throughout the film that made it a surprisingly enjoyable experience.
The real star of the movie is Leslie Mann, who creates a vulnerable, funny character. She steals every scene she is in. Sadly, the ‘actual star’ of the movie, Cameron Diaz, seems to be phoning in her performance, which is not to say that her performance is necessarily bad. Put simply: Diaz in no way adds the level of depth or humour into her role the same way in that Leslie Mann does. Diaz is not only irritating to watch, but also a tiny bit depressing, as script and character wise Diaz had the most to work with.
The Other Woman works as a surprisingly refreshing injector into the romantic-comedy genre. Instead of the women being pitted against each other and blaming each other for Mark’s infidelity, they band together and their friendship is the heart of the film.
Whilst the film has its fair share of faults and will never be seen on a list of top ten films of 2014, The Other Woman is still an entertaining way to spend an afternoon. The idea at the core of the film should be somewhat appealing enough to entertain most audiences.
THE REEL SCORE: 6/10
– L.S.
