The Other Woman
What would you do if you found out you were an accidental mistress?
When Carly (Cameron Diaz: The Counselor) makes a surprise visit to her boyfriend Mark (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau: Game of Thrones), she meets his wife. Horrified, Carly tries to lose herself in work to forget that she was conned by a philanderer.
Carly’s plan fails when Mark’s wife, Kate (Leslie Mann: Rio 2) appears at her office. But not for vengeance. After marrying Mark, Kate quit her job to become a housewife, blithely redecorating their mansion while Mark slept around. Carly’s appearance snapped Kate out of denial. But with no career, money of her own or friends, Kate has nowhere else to go. Carly is her default.
Their awkward connection blossoms into friendship when Carly and Kate switch from whining about Mark’s behavior to getting even. Another of Mark’s myriad mistresses makes three scorned women out to ruin one man.
Equal parts girl power and gross-out comedy, The Other Woman is a wildly uneven entry into the revenge genre. Director Nick Cassavetes (Yellow) arrives at no consistent tone. A farcical comedy of manners devolves into crass physical jokes that are both obvious and, worse still, not funny. As Kate and Carly bond over Mark, the dating scene and how hard it can be for a woman in the world, Kate’s great Dane relieves himself on Carly’s floor. When a movie spends more time on dog poop than on crafting believable characters, it’s a bad sign.
Writer Melissa Stack (Tependris Rising) offers a slightly feminist twist on girls’ comedy by having wronged women team up instead of fighting. But her characters remain broad stereotypes of, well, broads. As the youngest of Mark’s mistresses, model-turned-actress Kate Upton is cast as the dumb blonde. Her Marilyn Monroe impersonation is adequate, but the character is a stereotype. Diaz’s Carly is a cold career woman. A man helps humanize her because where would women be without the love of a good man?
Mann elevates Kate above the stereotype through sheer will. She makes Kate a sad, silly woman whose plucky attitude avoids pathos. Mann and Diaz have good chemistry, and although the movie is a vehicle for Diaz, Mann steals every scene she’s in and wrings laughs out of the dated material.
If Cassavetes had trusted the three leads, he wouldn’t need crude, silly sight gags.