While some may consider the term “chick flick” to be derogatory, there’s no denying that ‘The Other Woman’ is heavily catered to women in terms of story, execution, and even marketing. However, that doesn’t mean that I cannot, at the very least, verify whether or not this film is worth the money one would set aside for a “girls’ night out.”
Cameron Diaz stars as a successful lawyer who’s been seeing a guy named Mark, played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. She soon discovers that Mark is married and meets the wife he’s been cheating on, played by Leslie Mann. After the two form an unlikely friendship, they meet a third woman, played by Kate Upton, and the three conspire to get revenge against the man who’s been duping them by slowly ruining his life.
This movie takes a while to really get going, which is surprising, given how short and fast-paced it is. The really good jokes don’t appear until halfway through the film. It is filled with enough clichés to spawn its own drinking game and include three pop-song “bonding” montages.
The acting in the film is pretty good, but some characters, Leslie Mann’s in particular, are difficult to warm up to at first because of the cartoon-like nature of the character.
In the case of Diaz, her performance is a great deal better than “the performance she tried to give in The Counselor.” When she’s given a character that actually has emotions and motivations, as seen in this film, she does pretty well.
Other than that, there’s not much else to say about this film. Despite its 109 minute runtime, it feels long in a few places – with some elements, like a certain role played by a certain musician who thinks she can act.
‘The Other Woman’ has its moments, but it’s not a film I’d recommend paying full price for. If you wish to see it in theaters for a girls’ night out, then wait for it to come to the dollar theater. Better yet, wait for it to come to Redbox or Netflix.
“The Other Woman” gets a 3.5/5.
