By Melissa Antoinette Garza
THE OTHER WOMAN is a movie I only sought out because it was recommended by my mother. On the way back from MOHEGAN SUN, she began telling me about the film, and it actually sounded quite funny so I took my mother’s advice and rented it.
It’s a bit like THE FIRST WIVES CLUB (1996) but with younger women and only one male antagonist. It starts with an insecure and slightly crazy housewife, Kate King (Leslie Mann) believing herself to be living the American dream. Her husband, Mark (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), travels a lot for business. Unbeknownst to her, he’s also a cheating louse.
While on a business trip he starts a relationship with Carly (Cameron Diaz). She believes it to be exclusive and after eight weeks is ready to introduce him to her father Frank (Don Johnson).
Carly is a business woman herself. She holds her feelings on the inside and attempts to stay calm, cool and collective. When Mark returns home and tells Carly he has to put off meeting her father, she decides to dress like a sexy plumber and surprise him by going to his house.
It is there that she finds out Mark is married. She tries to make up a story as to spare Kate, but the wife isn’t that dumb. Kate shows up at Carly’s work and has a crying fit. Carly brings her out drinking and does her best to walk away from the situation, but Kate pulls her in until the two form a real friendship and decide to get revenge.
They stake out Mark while staying at Kate’s brother’s house on the beach. Phil (Taylor Kinney) is concerned about his sister and asks Carly to be good to her when the realism of her marriage failing sets in. She says she will and the two hit it off well. The duo become romantically involved when they meet the third mistress.
Amber (Kate Upton) lacks intelligence but is peppy, sexy, and genuinely nice. She feels terrible when she finds out Mark is a bastard and decides to help out as well. At first, Carly is jealous as Amber is younger and more attractive.
Without question, THE OTHER WOMAN plays on the normal caricatures that the mainstream pushes on a regular basis.
Kate is the crazy woman who feels as though she can’t live without her husband and is lost in a world of supermarkets and smoothies. Carly is the strong bitch who is harsh and unfeeling. Lastly, Amber is the young, gorgeous, stupid one.
That said, the film is smarter than most movies with these stereotypes as it is self-aware. Each portrayal is over-emphasized to near cartoon proportions. It’s done for laughs more than representation. Now, this isn’t a celebration of feminism, but it’s a gal-pal comedy that works as a counterpart to THE HANGOVER series.
The jokes work really well for the most part. I’m not big on gross-out humor and there are a few moments that go for low-brow gags, but overall it’s pretty mild, but funny stuff.
The three stars have great chemistry together and play off each other well. The women really fell into their characters and madeeach one believable even in the most ridiculous of situations.
The addition of Don Johnson as Carly’s dad was a great fit and it’s always good to see him on screen.
Taylor Kinney also does excellent as the protective and kind brother. This role is more important than just being a love interest for Carly as it displays the exact opposite of the main antagonist. Phil’s honesty needed to be shown in a gentle and pure way and it needed to ring true. This offered the audience a male character within the movie that wasn’t a womanizer or cheat.
Coster-Waldau perfectly fit his role as the villain. He conveyed Mark in a manner where the women didn’t seem stupid for believing him. He was a good liar for the most part. There are moments when Kate falls back into his trap believing him to have changed and it’s easy for the viewer to fall into that as well. He expressed love and adoration in a sincere manner than separates the character from most cheating husbands seen in films.
The only thing that really irritated me was the slight presence of “singer” Nicki Minaj. She portrays Carly’s secretary who isn’t against having affairs with married men. If portrayed by nearly anyone else, the actor could have played the part so it fit the film. The dialogue shows clearly that the character wants to help her friend but is doing a horrible job sort of like Vanessa Bayer’s character in TRAINWRECK. With the tone of this movie, better casting choices are so easy. Off the top of my head, I would have looked toward: Queen Latifah, Mayim Bialik, Sarah Hyland, Tessa Thompson – the list goes on and on.
Instead, we have Minaj chewing the scenery in the most annoying way and making everything about her when she is a NOBODY in this film. The character could have been written out and it would have been a better movie because of Minaj’s anti-acting.
I seriously wish that film, TV and the industry as a whole would stop paying attention to Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus. Neither are talented, entertaining, or come close to having the IT factor but somehow they get work and are popular. Both think making funny faces in a camera is edgy and dancing horribly yet provocatively is artistic.
Also, Minaj just being Minaj is a horrible fit for this movie. She has shown so much hatred towards other women and has degraded other women in her music by calling them whores and worse. She would have been a better fit in one of the misogynistic Adam Sandler films that keep coming despite the pleas of anyone with taste. He loves cameos.
Other than that little rant, the movie deserves better praise than it’s getting. It isn’t going to change the world but it’s a fun girl-night watch.
It’s definitely a predictable movie with a predictable ending, but that’s not always a bad thing; and here is one of those times.
Scared Stiff Rating: 6.5/10 (lost a point for Minaj)
