Movie Review: "The Other Woman" (2014)

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Movie: "The Other Woman"
Director: Nick Cassavetes
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 1 hour, 49 minutes

Carly Whitten (Cameron Diaz) is a high-powered attorney who is quickly falling for Mark King (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), a venture capitalist and boyfriend of 8 weeks. She believes he may be the one. When she shows up at his house dressed as a sexy plumber, she is shocked when his wife Kate (Leslie Mann) opens the door. Kate tracks down Carly in the city to find out what happened. The two ladies form a bond out of Mark's infidelity. They also come to realize they had both been getting played when he whisks girlfriend #3, Amber (Kate Upton), off on a beach vacation. Together, the three women vow revenge on their mutual cheating lover in the form of estrogen pills, laxatives, and complete and utter financial ruin.

*sigh*

This movie was pretty much as we expected. It is not so much a romance as it is a contrite attempt at "girl power." What it does, however, is fail in almost every aspect.

We don't care for Cameron Diaz. It seems like she plays the same desperate character in all of these faux women empowerment movies, and she's also the go-to female lead for them. She plays the woman who can get any man she wants, but for some reason (and even though she's obviously intelligent since she's a well-known, powerful lawyer in this movie), she still falls for the wrong man.
Leslie Mann is the most tolerable of the three main women in this film, but even then, she too is desperate, clingy, and driven by the need for a man in her life, even though he treats her like crap.
Kate Upton is only in this movie to run on the beach in a bikini, and more power to her, she is gorgeous...but then, the filmmakers and writers needed to add that she was the stereotypical young dumbass who dates a wealthier older man on top of all of this. Why does Hollywood need to dumb down attractive women and make powerful, successful women seemingly unable to have a family life AND a job at the same time? Leslie Mann's Kate dropped everything work related when she got married in pursuit of her husband's job and dreams. Cameron Diaz's Carly proved to be a successful high-powered attorney but couldn't stay with anyone long enough to have a family or even a stable relationship. It's all very cliche and sexist, and anyone who finds this movie empowering (except for maybe the last 10 minutes of the movie....maybe) needs to go read some Gloria Steinem.
Fourth wheel and relative nobody Nicki Minaj's voice is grating when she opens her mouth long enough for us to understand what she's saying on top of the fact that she cannot act. Why she was cast in this movie is a mystery because she has about 4 lines of dialogue and is basically replaceable and/or unnecessary. Need to cast a huge tool? Call Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. He plays this role very well and makes us wonder if he's like that in real life.

We laughed about 2 times a piece in this film. We also don't get why people are calling this the funniest movie of the year, because it's not. It's definitely not. We spent most of the film rolling our eyes and shaking our heads at the forced jokes and regression of womanhood as we know it.

The best part of the movie is Leslie Mann's dog.

My Rating: 3.5/10
BigJ's Rating: 3.5/10
IMDB's Rating: 6.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 23%
Do we recommend this movie: No.