The Other Woman

OK. What is the definition of the best written comedy? ...BUZZ! Times up. Answer? One that comes across almost seriously, but by the incredibly well-crafted script, it simply makes one laugh...BIG time. There are films that follow this recipe that come to mind: "The Odd Couple", "Being There", "Private Benjamin", "State and Main", "Thank You for Smoking", however "The Other Woman" doesn't fall into that list.

After discovering her boyfriend, Mark King (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is married, Carly Whitten (Cameron Diaz) tries to get her ruined, humiliated life back on track. But when she inadvertently meets the wife, Kate (Leslie Mann) Mark's been cheating on, she realizes they have much in common, and her sworn enemy becomes her greatest friend. Subsequently they realize Mark is cheating again with yet another woman, Amber (Kate Upton), and when they let Amber in on what's going on, all three women decide to team up to plot mutual revenge on their cheating, lying, three-timing SOB, all with him not even realizing, at first, what's going on.

Others to round out the cast are Don Johnson as Frank, Carly's dad, Taylor Kinney as Phil, Kate's brother, Nicki Minaj as Lydia, Carly's secretary/friend, David Thornton as Nick, Victor Cruz as Fernando, and Alyshia Ochse as Cece.

This was directed with the usual expertise one can expect by the incomparable Nick Cassavetes ("Unhook the Stars" '96, "She's So Lovely" '97, "John Q" '02, "The Notebook" '04, "Alpha Dog" '06, "My Sister's Keeper" '09, "Yellow" '12). He doesn't have a plethora of work considering the time span, but quality it is. His direction appears effortless--like the created characters actually exist. As mentioned above, the real culprit here is the writing by Melissa K. Stack. Considering this is her first theatrical film screenplay, it was not a bad effort, however if this film seems familiar, it should feel that way, because as I was watching this, it felt so similar to that of "Nine to Five" and/or "First Wives Club". These two films were exceptional films especially "Nine to Five" mostly because of their well-crafted writing by seasoned writers of the day. This film doesn't have that same quality, which makes this film lack. Now, I'm not throwing the baby out with the bath water--there were funny moments in this, especially when Mark finally 'loses' it, but the key word here is moments. Even if this wasn't so predictable, it would have helped, but then it wouldn't be so similar to others films at that point.

Certainly if you like comedies, you'll like this--even with the similarities. It is written better than most comedies today, however that doesn't give this any credit. But, if you're looking for a taught, well-crafted script, you might want to wait for the DVD on this one.

Out of 4 Stars: 2                         Rated: PG-13                           109mins.