Review of The Other Woman (2014) by James W — 26 Sep 2014

Director Nick Cassavetes doesn't master a female driven comedy like Paul Feig did with Bridesmaids or The Heat, instead Cassavetes attempts to inject The Other Woman with energy but nearly all scenes are montages with dreadful songs played over them, all dry and devoid of fun. In this feature written by Melissa Stack, successful lawyer Carly thinks she's met the man of her dreams in Mark, until she finds out that he is actually married and also seeing yet another Woman. Together, Carly, Mark's wife Kate and young babe Amber team up to exact payback.

This story puts an admittedly fresh spin on the chick flick formula, instead of the woman being rivals they become best of friends in a most unlikely situation. The chemistry between the three is believable, bubbly and at times edgy when the stakes get high as the women attempt to plan their revenge. Sadly nearly all scenes are stale, most noticeably when Kate and Carly decide to stop being friends, and any scene involving Kate's Brother feels like filler, leading up the subplot of Carly's attraction to him.

The cast, however, are good, Cameron Diaz is hilarious as always, smart, sophisticated and likably stern as Carly, her sassy line delivery shows she means business. Leslie Mann is good as Kate, the wife of Mark who just can't grasp why he's cheating. Mann's crying, both inside and out, render big laughs, probably some of the only laughs in the film. Diaz and Mann could well be the next comedy duo, but they need a better film. Kate Upton's first big role is Amber, the other other woman whose beach body and perfect hair proves competition for Carly and Kate, but the two find out Amber too wants in on their blonde power revenge scheme, Upton is good, there's no raw emotion but she has some funny one liners and adds some sweetness. Nikolaj Coster Waldau comes away from playing Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones and plays a sly cheater superbly, he's a very funny guy. They really do their best with the material, they are clearly having fun but I wasn't.

Surprisingly, it's Nicki Minaj in her acting debut who steals any scene she's in as Lydia, Carly's assistant who dishes out guy advice and cynicism, and that's it fine to ruin a marriage. The moment I saw her I thought blimey this will be interesting but she proved herself to be solid at delivering laughs, she had presence and authority when on screen standing beside Cameron Diaz, Minaj had the whole cinema giggling, nice one Nicki!

Despite a decent ending where Mark is well and truly beat down accompanied by some fantastic slapstick, The Other Woman starts out slow and dry and continues following down that road, it was too girly for me at times and for a good forty odd minutes I barely chuckled, and that's a sign to stop watching.