THE OTHER WOMAN Review
By: Sue
The Other Woman takes male bashing to a whole new level, okay for a Girls Night Out.
From the director that made everyone sob like little girls with The Notebook, Nick Cassavetes, comes The Other Woman which is the exact opposite of that heartfelt love story. Instead of everlasting love comes a comedy of revenge and friendship, which starts out slow, and never really finds its feet as it stumbles along with slapstick gags and humorless dialogue.
After years of dating all the wrong guys, Carly (Cameron Diaz) thinks she may have found a winner in Mark (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), or at least one good enough to ditch the rest of her beaus and become a one man woman, but Mark proves to worse than the men before him.
Opening up with a very Notebook lovey dovey rom-com montage, it is quickly dissolved when Mark goes to bed with Carly but wakes up next to his wife, Kate (Leslie Mann). Where Carly was smart and sexy, Kate seems to be the opposite. She’s ditzy, and about as far from sexy as they can make her without making her ugly.
After a small tiff, and on some seemingly sound advice from her father Carly goes to help Mark with a plumbing issue, hot pants and plunger in hand, only to find out that his issue isn’t with pipes, but instead that he’s got a wife. Embarrassed Carly tries to return to her life, and forget about Mark, but Kate relentlessly tracks her down, and forces her friendship upon her. With no one in her life to turn to, Kate clings to Carly and the two find that they have more than Mark in common.
The pair team up and trail Mark, only to learn that there is yet another mistress in the wings, the beautiful, sweet, and youthful Amber (Kate Upton). Amber is quickly brought into the fold and the three women team up to plot mutual revenge on their cheating, lying, three-timing guy.
While Mark’s take down is quite embarrassing and hilarious the movie flounders because like Mark the film can’t seem to choose one revenge plot, and instead tries to have a hand in all the surrounding pies, but doesn’t really execute any of them well. When all the cards are on the table, and the story is complete, you still feel that Kate got the short end of the stick.
With Diaz no longer able to be the young guileless blonde, that is Upton’s job now, she struggles to be the smart and sassy one, coming across as more shrewd and harsh. Diaz is clearly still struggling with the role of aging gracefully in her comedic setting. She’s fun and quirky, the guys gal, but definitely not the hot girl next door anymore.
Whereas Mann’s Kate while ditzy and whiny, her zaniness works because she’s really not above anything for a laugh, and for the most part she gets what she’s aiming for.
Poor Coster-Waldau has probably the hardest job in the flick, devolving into distasteful stereotype of the handsome, lying, too slick cheater.
Nicki Minaj only has a small role in the film, but she steals every scene she’s in as Carly’s sassy office assistant, Lydia. As does Taylor Kinney, as Kate’s brother Phil, who is the quintessential good guy and replacement love interest for Carly.
The Other Woman takes male bashing to a whole new level, okay for a Girls Night Out, but don’t make you guy sit through it for a date night unless you’re planning a final date. Really it’s not worth the torment for them to see Kate Upton run across the beach in a white bikini.
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