By On the heels of a Golden Globe award and a potential Oscar win, Natalie Portman is what’s hot on these streets (and by streets, I mean whatever coffeehouse critics hang out at). Despite being paired with Ashton Kutcher in a seemingly awful romantic comedy, it actually faired well with El Jefe Razak and the box office. Still, with so many films (i.e. Biutiful, Rabbit Hole) dealing with grief and mourning, could The Other Woman hold its own and reinforce the powerhouse that is Portman? Also, will I use this review as an excuse to tell dead baby jokes? Only the jump will tell.
On the heels of a Golden Globe award and a potential Oscar win, Natalie Portman is what’s hot on these streets (and by streets, I mean whatever coffeehouse critics hang out at). Despite being paired with Ashton Kutcher in a seemingly awful romantic comedy, it actually faired well with El Jefe Razak and the box office. Still, with so many films (i.e. Biutiful, Rabbit Hole) dealing with grief and mourning, could The Other Woman hold its own and reinforce the powerhouse that is Portman? Also, will I use this review as an excuse to tell dead baby jokes? Only the jump will tell.{{page_break}}
On the cusp of an interoffice affair with her married boss, Jack Woolf (Scott Cohen), Emilia Greenleaf (Natalie Portman) becomes pregnant with his child, effectively breaking up his previous marriage. When their infant child dies, Emilia must deal with the mourning as well as become a suitable stepmother to Jack’s neurotic child William.
On paper, there are a lot of interesting elements transpiring in The Other Woman. Not only does an infant born out of an extramarital affair die, but now Emilia must deal with her newfound responsibilities as wife and stepmother. There could be an interesting dynamic between the scorned stepmother and the bitter stepchild as well as problems in a marriage that destroyed another marriage, but sadly none of these things ever really happen.
The biggest fault with this film is the fact that it played so safe, resulting in a shallow string of problems. As soon as any kind of dilemma arises, it’s solved immediately after, leaving no real time to let any sort of tension marinate. In one instance, William has an “accident” at a kid’s party after Emilia lets him eat ice cream despite being told that he’s lactose intolerant. Emilia believes his lactose intolerance is another way that William’s mother (played by Lisa Kudrow) controls him. Within a few minutes, we come to find out that it wasn’t William’s lactose intolerance, but that all the kids got sick at the party due to tainted hummus (hmm…hummus), and like that Emilia and William’s relationship is repaired. There are a couple more instances, but I digress.
With so many faults in story and character, Natalie Portman still delivers a strong performance. Though I admittedly never “got” her whole appeal, I must say she was both charming and harrowing in her delivery. The husband (Scott Cohen) s nothing more than a cardboard cut-out and the annoying pair of mother and son (Lisa Kudrow/Charlie Tahan) personify Manhattanite douchiness to a point that it’s overbearing.
Originally set for a 2009 release, The Other Woman was put on the shelf in order to avoid competing with Portman’s performance in Black Swan. Suffice to say, it probably had a better place on the shelf as The Other Woman manages to pander and tug at the heartstrings in the safest possible way, resulting in a lackluster drama that has little to no redeeming qualities. Portman delivers a fine performance, but it’s not enough to carry poor plot development, shallow characters and a story that’s too afraid to take risks.
Overal Score: 5.05 – Bad. (5s are movies that either failed at reaching the goals it set out to do, or didn’t set out to do anything special and still had many flaws. Some will enjoy 5s, but unless you’re a fan of this genre, you shouldn’t see it, and might not even want to rent it.)
And no, there will be no dead baby jokes. Have some class.