The Other Woman | Movie Review

In The Other Woman, Mark King seems to have it all. A beautiful wife in Kate, a gorgeous home, and seemingly enough money to keep him singing in hot tubs until his dying day. If it wasn’t for all of those pesky mistresses always getting in his way.

Yes, mistresses. Plural. If The Other Woman were made for a man’s mentality circa-1985, all that would be missing from Mark King would be a cape. Instead we see the events unfold from the viewpoint of the women scorned by this lecherous pig. And man, they are ticked.

Carly (Cameron Diaz) is Mistress #1. When she attempts to surprise her ‘boyfriend’ Mark (Game of Thrones’ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), she unwittingly learns that Mark is married to the manically insecure Kate (Leslie Mann). After becoming not-so-fast friends, Carly and Kate set loose to trail Mark and see how far his carousing goes…only to find Mistress #2 in the form of Amber (played by Sport Illustrated model Kate Upton). Three women, humiliated by the same man, unite to offer up a film that is the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants of the revenge genre.

Yes, you will most likely know where the plot is headed fifteen minutes into the movie, but does that make it less entertaining? The short answer is no. This is a fun and engaging comedy with winning performances from all (Ok, most. Nicki Minaj as Carly’s secretary does just enough to get by, and Upton is not quite a thespian). Also, if you judged it solely on the trailers, The Other Woman seemed like a pretty cut-and-dry plot pulled directly from the cookie sheet. What you miss is that the film takes the issue fairly seriously for a comedy, and therefore showcases quite a bit of heart.

Cameron Diaz has been handling comedies in her sleep for some time now, but here she strays away from the slightly goofy and ditzy blond into a more mature confident professional, and the change looks good on her. As the mistress with morals, she initially wants no part in a revenge plot. Yet, when she sees the pain and humiliation Mark has caused, her interest peaks. Kate’s fairly attractive brother adds just enough to keep the pot sweetened.

Leslie Mann, an actress who is known almost as much for her high pitch as her presentation, begins the film in the most grating manner possible before eventual winning you over with her first true characterization on screen. Kate is not just a woman scorned, her heart and life has been destroyed by this man. This man that she still loves. It was a pleasant surprise to see Mann rise to the occasion and show that this role does not need to be an exhausted stereotype.

The third leg of this tripod in Kate Upton does enough to warrant her screen time, but little to impress that she deserves anymore of it than we get. She is a nice rounding out of the threesome and obviously nothing to look away from on screen, but this film thankfully rests squarely in the hands of Diaz and Mann.

The other actors are nothing more than placement holders until the next scene, yet Don Johnson was a fresh surprise as Carly’s wily father. It is nice to see Johnson finally getting some quality screen time again. If you are a fan of Coster-Waldau’s, you may disappointed as his role is limited, and he is even more nefarious here than in the show which he is known for. That in itself is quite the accomplishment.

Director Nick Cassavetes has not crafted a masterpiece of the human condition here, but he has managed to take a paint-by-numbers premise and inject it with enough laughs and heart to keep you entertained and rooting for Mark’s eventual reckoning. This Other Woman is worth seeing in public.

If $10 is the full price of admission, The Other Woman is worth $7

 

Aaron Peterson
The Hollywood Outsider