Scorned women of the world unite! Last week’s #1 movie at the box office was The Other Woman, raking in nearly $25 million. Despite a scary 25% approval on Rotten Tomatoes and earning reviews like Lisa Kennedy’s less-than-glowing, “Granted, it would be nice to have a ladies’ night out at the multiplex, but no one need be this desperate,” the movie’s opening week success suggests that this is the kind of movie women want to go see. The Other Woman is the ultimate chick-flick revenge comedy, and though the plot is not exactly innovative, the friendship chemistry between its female leads brings a freshness to a story that’s been told a thousand times before.
When Kate King (Leslie Mann) meets Carly (Cameron Diaz), the high-powered lawyer that her husband has been having an affair with, they form an unlikely and initially hesitant friendship, vowing to discover the third woman he is fooling around with and to completely tear his life apart. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (a.k.a. Jaime from Game of Thrones!) plays Mark, the three-timing man who charms and lies his way out of every situation. Although married to Kate, he also lives the high life with Carly: We see a montage of fancy dinners, cute dates in Central Park—the whole nine yards. The story picks up when the angry women head out to Kate’s attractive, single, and conveniently located nearby brother Phil’s house (Taylor Kinney), in order to spy on Mark and the other other woman. They find that the third woman is Amber (supermodel Kate Upton), and are hilariously pissed off about her bikini body and youth. Cue the slow motion scene of Kate Upton running along the beach, and you will feel their pain too. Upton shows off her, um, assets throughout her scenes, and although she might not be the next Meryl Streep, endearingly plays the dumb blonde role and gets quite a few laughs. From there, Kate, Carly, and Amber become determined to bring Mark to his demise and begin tormenting him with all the classic tricks—Nair in the shampoo bottle, laxatives, etc. Despite the plot’s predictability in this sense, there is still a great deal of satisfaction in seeing Mark get what he deserves!
By this point, I really couldn’t help but laugh at every ridiculous plot step. It is Leslie Mann who truly does the comedic heavy lifting throughout the movie, balancing out Diaz’s more low-key character, who is meant to be more of the “straight man” type. To top it all off, Nicki Minaj makes a bizarre cameo as Carly’s secretary, and her hair color changes with every scene she is in! I don’t think anyone is or should be going into this movie looking for a life-changing experience, but it is the perfect guilty pleasure escape movie that we all crave every now and then.
No matter what the reviews might say, sometimes a good laugh is just what you need. The verdict? Grab some girlfriends and go see it! Watch the trailer here!