The Other Woman

I was curious to see The Other Woman as a newly married female who has seen This is 40 forty times.  I wondered, will the three stars of the film – Leslie Bibb, Cameron Diaz, and Kate Upton – bond to take down the shyster who literally screwed all of them?  How feminist of the film industry to show beautiful women coming together to take down the patriarchy, right?  At least, I’d hoped, the film would prove to be a respite from the constant state of sad news about birth control access and the closing doors of abortion clinics throughout the south.  I needed to see some women win.  

This film, however, is definitely a DON’T.  I spent six bucks to rent it on ITunes, and the first disappointment was a bad lip-dub not 30 minutes in of Cameron Diaz saying “flipping” instead of “fucking.”  Apparently a dog shitting on the floor and a ten minute conversation about bush is rating appropriate, but women swearing?  EGADS.

The plot plods along as seen on TV (in previews).  Bibb is cheated on by a handsome hubby with Cameron Diaz.  Diaz didn’t know about the marriage and bonds with Bibb over their maltreatment.  They travel to the Hamptons to discover he has yet another mistress – Upton – who they bond with as well.  Over and over, they discover the husband has kept women, secrets and lies. 

Pranks ensue.  I’d call it “revenge” but the antics are juvenile: messing with shampoo, giving him estrogen.  The viewer ultimately ends up feeling sad for Bibb because of how desperate she looks and acts.  There’s no depth to her predictable mid-movie return to the husband; his performance was so blasé itself I don’t have the interest in looking up the actor’s name.  

We’re left with nothing but regret, for losing an hour plus of our day to this drivel.

Cameron Diaz flails as a hot-shot lawyer mistress (or a pretty woman in a suit with an office?) who is exasperated by the cheating and roped into the revenge.  I can’t get behind the idea that Diaz gets exasperated by anything.  What about her says, “hardworking professional” other than her closet full of hooker heels?  She looks plucked from a beach from the west coast.  These tan blondes, Diaz and Upton, are not East Coast.  

Bibb comes off in the beginning well as a pale, bubbly, likable housewife with a teeming sense of neuroses (trying to cram lots of words into every sentence).  But one alcohol fueled tantrum follows another and she ends up in the rabbit hole of the eyeliner stained teary ex-wife that you’d rather not think about, or at least spend your entertainment dollars on.  

It’s like the First Wives Club without the evil grin of Bette Midler.  The only redeeming quality was the slapstick, which Diaz and Bibb hit without missing a mark.  The two minutes Diaz spends trying to get a drunk Bibb in a cab is all you need to see of this flick.