By Diego Olivares
Romantic comedies enter a new low with “The Other Woman” with its poor humor and uninteresting characters while having some positive traits.
The plot deals with a lawyer named Carly, played by Cameron Diaz, dating amoral businessman, Mark. She soon discovers that her beau is actually married to a nutty woman, Kate, played by Leslie Mann.
Kate is heartbroken after crossing paths with Carly and learning of Mark’s affair behind her back.
The two also discover that Mark has another woman on the side named Amber, played by Kate Upton. All three women get together and plot against the cheating husband.
Over the course of the film, the women begin a friendship together and discover Mark has more dirty secrets to hide.
The premise sounds like a horrible concept pitched at a studio meeting and fails at being entertaining.
While it has its flaws, “The Other Woman” does have some positive elements.
Director Nick Cassavetes gives the movie a strong visual look. The movie feels professionally made; though its sad when a well-made movie has to support poor material.
Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau gives the best performance playing Mark by giving him perfectly unlikable qualities.
The scenes of him falling victim to the women’s plot are the funniest parts due how despicable Mark is. The audience really wants to see him get his punishment.
Those were the only positives of the film as its all downhill from there.
Its a huge problem when the most interesting parts are the background actors and set design. They’re much better to look at than the movie’s main action.
There’s nothing romantic about this movie at all as there’s no emotional connection to the film’s romantic angle.
The best romantic films tend to fill the audience with love while this movie fills them with boredom.
The lack of emotional connection in the story is due to the unlikable and annoying characters in the story.
Most of the movie is seriously unfunny as the humor feels forced at times.
Humor tends to work best when with its part of the narrative. Having the jokes push the storyline or define character is the best way to create it in films.
The jokes come off as cheap gags and interrupt the story as they don’t make the audience laugh but have them feel sleepy.
Diaz has given better performances in other films. She gives a forgettable one in this film with no effort put into it whatsoever.
Mann tries too hard to generate laughs as her performance feels forced than natural resulting in none.
Upton is there mainly to serve as the movie’s eye candy. Her character is given no personally of her own at all and is only present to leer at.
Since the lead performances are weak, they don’t add any comic energy. The lack of energy creates much of the boring mood of the film.
Some of the songs in the soundtrack are poorly selected. The songs used at times come across as too obvious for the scenes and lack subtlety.
One example of this is a scene where the trio of leading ladies plot against the husband. The song used in the scene was “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” which is an obvious selection.
Due to the poor acting, terrible story and mostly unfunny gags, the movie becomes boring as a result.
People should spend their money on something meaningful like buying a loved one a gift. They shouldn’t waste it on this piece of cinematic trash.
This film gives romantic comedies a bad name.
“The Other Woman” is rated PG-13 on appeal for mature thematic material, sexual references and language.