Cinema Verdict Review: The Other Woman

The Other Woman

OPENING: 02/04/2011

STUDIO: Incentive Film

RUN TIME: 119 min

ACCOMPLICES:
, IMDb

The Charge
Love Makes Everything Possible

Opening Statement
After spending more than a year collecting dust on the shelf, Don Roos’ The Other Woman is finally getting a proper release. While it isn’t the stinker some have suspected it to be, the film doesn’t quite manage to capitalize on its potential.

Facts of the Case
Emilia Greenleaf (Natalie Portman, V for Vendetta) meets Jack (Scott Cohen, Kissing Jessica Stein) at the law firm where they both work. Jack’s married, but that doesn’t stop the two of them from falling madly in love. A couple of months later, Emilia reveals that she is pregnant. Without hesitation, Jack leaves his wife Carolyne (Lisa Kudrow, Friends) and marries Emilia.

Fast forward a year or so. Emilia is now attempting to cope with the tragic loss of her infant child (the baby died only three days after birth) and working to establish a successful relationship with her eight-year-old step-son (Charlie Tahan, Charlie St. Cloud). Unfortunately, finding a way to make her life and relationships work in the wake of her loss proves immensely challenging.

The Evidence
It’s not hard to see why The Other Woman was sitting on the shelf for a while. The film itself has some genuine merit, but it deals with material a bit too heavy for the mainstream yet lacks the depth and artistry required to succeed with the arthouse crowd. A window of opportunity appeared with the release of Darren Aronofsky’s highly-regarded Black Swan, as The Other Woman leapt at the chance to cash in on Portman’s surging popularity before her numerous other 2011 releases had a chance to do so. Intriguing as all of this is, let’s set aside these complications and consider the film itself.

The Other Woman is arguably a film with more virtues than flaws, but I can’t stop thinking about how much better it could have been if it had been a little bolder and less conventional. The first area that comes to mind is the way the relationship between Emilia, Jack and Carolyne is handled. The situation is a messy one, as a married man is leaving his wife for a younger woman. The film briefly acknowledges the inevitable pangs of guilt that come with such a scenario, but it cleans up any conflicted feelings we may have by tipping the scales in a rather shameless manner.

Kudrow’s Carolyne is presented as a horrific monster of a woman; an awful human being in almost every regard. She tears up the picture her son drew in school. She tells her son that Emilia’s dead child, “wasn’t a real person, anyway.” She spews venomous bile almost every time she appears. No one could ever fault a man for leaving such a woman, but this ugly characterization undercuts the nuance the film hints at exploring. What a bold stroke it would have been to make Carolyne an intelligent, reasonable, decent woman. It’s said early on that she and her husband had grown somewhat distant from each other–that would have been sufficient reason for the break-up. By turning Carolyne into a villain, the film dismisses the fact that Jack is basically trading in his 40-something wife for a younger model.

There’s another area that I have to approach with a little more caution, as I want to avoid spoilers. Midway through the film, Emilia provides Jack with a startling piece of information. The scene in which this happens in the film’s most gutwrenching moment; a heartbreaking revelation that takes The Other Woman into deep, dark territory. Unfortunately, a handful of moments in the film’s final 15 minutes or so work hard to undermine the strength of this scene, eventually draining it of its devastating power. The scene midway through prevents the film from being regarded as fluff; the later scenes assure that many will regard it as unsubstantial.

I could list a handful of other irksome issues, but most of the problems are essentially variations on the same tune: the film flits back and forth between uncomfortable complexity and easily digestible convention. As such, my reaction is similarly conflicted. The film ultimately proved an unsatisfying experience for me, as I felt it could have and should have been more than it is. Even so, in a number of ways the movie is so much better than films which actually worked for me because they succeeded in fulfilling their relatively small ambitions. Secretariat works for me and The Other Woman doesn’t, but I’d rather watch The Other Woman a second time. You know what I mean.

At the very least, I feel no need to qualify my praise for Ms. Portman, whose fine performance is the film’s most consistently compelling element. It’s a quiet, introspective role containing a great deal of emotional subtlety, and Portman sells some difficult moments with conviction. She really shines during her interactions with young Charlie Tahan, who also creates a distinctive character that manages to avoid the usual “precocious kid” clichés. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast suffers to varying degrees. Kudrow’s solid work is ruined by the terrible writing, while Scott Cohen is endlessly bland in his poorly defined role. The sidekick characters played by Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under) and Anthony Rapp (Rent) seem to have been imported in from a low-rent romantic comedy.

Closing Statement
The Other Woman is best suited to viewers who appreciate understated, thoughtful filmmaking. Unfortunately, such viewers are also the most likely to take issue with the film’s flaws.

The Verdict
6/10