Women on top: The Other Woman

The Other Woman is a glossy, but unremarkable comedy that boasts a bevy of beauties and a handsome leading man whose charm (and lies) is a magnet to those of the female species. This, it turns out, proves his undoing.

This cliché-infested story concerns a wealthy, philandering husband, Mark King (Nicolak Coster-Waldau), who cheats on his homely wife Kate (Mann) with two attractive women: a spunky, hard-hearted lawyer Carly (Diaz) and the well-endowed, intellectually challenged Amber (Upton).

When the three women discover each other, and Mark’s indiscretions, they team up and hatch a nasty plan to get back at him – with part of the strategy involving infantile situations where the humour is gross and of a distasteful toilet variety. Also, the knock-about physical comedy employed here brings the production down several notches. It ignores potentially edgy possibilities to convey a banal story that runs out of steam long before the end.

The film makers would have us believe that The Other Woman is a healthy and funny female-empowerment picture, but all it succeeds in doing is showing us that female protagonists can be as insulting and offensive as their male counterparts.

Screenwriter Melissa Stack, working on her first feature, is undecided in her intentions and cannot make up her mind whether The Other Woman is a comedy or a more serious commentary about women’s rights. In the end, it’s neither.

Key protagonist Mark is depicted as a fairly sane individual for most of the production – until the final scenes, when he is transformed into a frothing-at-the mouth lunatic. There is no genuine drama in the bonding of the three women and the bizarre antics executed by Diaz, Mann and Upton quickly begin to irritate. The acting never reaches any heights, with cringe-worth moments tossed in by Lesley Mann, who when she goes over-the-top seems to be re-channelling those Judd Apatow characters she’s played before.

For what it’s worth, there are small roles for Nicki Minaj, the opinionated, wig-changing singer and American Idols judge, and Don Johnson, former star of the Eighties Miami Vice TV series.