The Other Woman (2014, Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann) – Movie Review

After level-headed lawyer Cameron Diaz discovers that her hunky boyfriend Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is a married man, she soon meets the Mann he’s married to, Leslie Mann, the neurotic, clingy, whingey wife he’s been cheating on.

Diaz tries to shake off Mann, but eventually they start a weird odd-couple friendship. Then yet another, busty mistress (Kate Upton) is discovered, and the three team up to avenge themselves on the three-timing husband, who, it turns out, isn’t just cheating sexually.

Diaz is classy and there are quite a few laughs and fun to be had, at least in the film’s first half. Don Johnson is wasted as Diaz’s womanising dad, and so is Taylor Kinney as Mann’s hunky brother, who soon falls for Diaz. Understandably so, she looks stunning, and must have the best pair of legs in Hollywood, which she shows off to best hot-pants advantage. She must have the best smile in Hollywood, too. Why is it that Diaz is always better than the movies she appears in? No matter, just imagine them without her. And without her, The Other Woman would be a bit of a chore.

It’s a very good cast of very likeable performers, but Mann overacts, shouting and screaming, Upton is reduced to dumb blonde status that Marilyn Monroe would have rejected in the Fifties, and Coster-Waldau has no idea how to play the appalling material he’s given when he changes from charming smooth guy to pathetic victim.

Melissa Stack writes two marvellous parts for the star women, but has no idea how to write roles for men. She’s got a great idea for a movie and plenty of plot and comic invention. But she needs to settle down a bit. Cut the dashing abroad stuff and the clichéd revenge stuff. And pump up the volume on the witty lines and subtle revenge plotting material. Then we’d have a worthy successor to Working Girl or First Wives Club as it so much aspires to be.

But, as the screenplay is currently written, it’s a problem of pitch for the actors, and that’s the director’s fault: Nick Cassavetes doesn’t get this right at all. He needed to tell Mann and Coster-Waldau that less is so much more. And to tell Melissa Stack to cut the pants pooping jokes and the hair falling out gags, at least to be absolute minimum, preferably altogether. There’s far too much slapstick. Diaz keeps falling over or out of windows or some such. But, classy dame as she is, she walks away unscathed and can even just about make this kind of comedy funny.

There are some very funny gags and situations among the dross, and it’s worthwhile just for Diaz.

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 http://derekwinnert.com/

Taylor Kinney as Mann’s hunky brother, who soon falls .for Diaz