Review: The Other Woman

83. The Other Woman
While this movie had a few funny moments, it never graduated beyond its basic concept, and the humor was not consistent enough to make it worthwhile.

The basic concept is not a bad one (though it's not the all time greatest logline, either). It's about a wife and the mistresses of a man who discover his infidelities and team up to get revenge. But that's all you get. The film never develops this premise beyond its basest potential, instead opting for a series of juvenile pranks and sub-par slapstick in a feeble attempt to generate laughs. Not only does it have nothing to offer that hasn't been seen many times before--it has nothing to offer that hasn't been done much better many times before.

Beyond its disinterest in delivering anything greater than the most basic plotline, the film's other major weakness is that it doesn't make the philandering husband a dislikeable enough character. He's not likeable, mind you, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau does play a good cad, but he's not given much to work with. Yes, the film establishes that he's cheating on all of these women and defrauding his employers to boot, but he doesn't come across as particularly nasty while doing these things. They should have shown him taking sadistic glee in his actions (it's a comedy, so I don't need subtlety). Without taking extra steps to make him a particularly loathsome character, the torture he is subjected to feels out of proportion to his crimes. There should be a sense of satisfaction in watching him suffer, but there's not.

This was basically a "trailer-ready" movie. It had enough plot and comedic scenes to fill a two minute trailer, but not nearly enough of either for a feature length film.