Following in the footsteps of many ofCameron Diaz’s recent comedies,The Other Womanisn’t very funny and it isn’t very good. The movie tells the story of Carly Whitten (Diaz), a successful lawyer who, on finding out that her boyfriend Mark (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is married, decides to help Mark’s wife Kate (Leslie Mann) in getting revenge.
The majority of the movie actually focuses on Kate, with Mann’s ability to deliver long, yell-y tangents designed to provide a lot of the film’s comedy. There’s also a massive reliance on physical comedy, with characters doing a lot of ‘hilarious’ wrestling and falling-over, taking each instance to the nth degree. The rest of the laughs are supposed to come from the revenge plotting, which seems to be the brainchild of a gang of 13-year-old girls. By the end the revenges become so cruel that they are a little uncomfortable to watch, my sympathies going to Mark instead of to the slightly sociopathic wronged women. On top of that, the idea of any person deliberately messing with the perfect hair, face and body of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau seems pretty far-fetched.
Director Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook, My Sister’s Keeper), son of the famous John Cassavetes, is apparently unable to avoid the pull for sentimentality, as all of the slapstick comedy is jarringly partnered with an overwhelming serving of cheese. After Carly and Kate discover Mark’s second mistress Amber (Kate Upton), the three women strike up a friendship full of slow-motion montages, dancing, and sitting on beaches. The mind boggles.
With a two-drink minimum this movie is probably actually pretty good for a night out with the girls, but without first being a little boozed-up, it’s not going to get you anywhere.
2/5 stars
The Other Woman is in cinemas April 17.
