Is 'The Other Woman' The Movie To See This Weekend? The Critics Say Find The Other Movie

If you’re thinking about what new movie to see this weekend, The Other Woman might just be topping your list. It looks fun, has two very likeable female leads (plus a Sports Illustrated model) and it’s directed by the man behind The Notebook. Also it might have you think that it holds some kind of great female empowerment message as the three unite against a cheating spouse. But the reality is it looks like The Other Woman might be best left alone this weekend, as the critics are indicating that this one might be a bit too much farce and not enough comedy.

Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann and Kate Upton star in The Other Woman

The plot of The Other Woman is actually pretty simple, Kate, played by Leslie Mann, finds out her husband Mark is cheating on her with Carly (Cameron Diaz). Rather than hate each other, the two women actually find out they have a surprising amount in common and become good friends. Then they learn that Mark has another woman, the 20 something Amber, played by Kate Upton. After the extent of his dastardliness is revealed all three women team up to plot their revenge on Mark with schemes such as putting Nair in his shampoo and adding female hormones to his juice.

Dodgy plot points aside, The Other Woman on paper could have actually been pretty good. Cameron Diaz is always fun to watch especially as she’s now maturing as a comedy actress. Then there’s Leslie Mann, the hugely talented comedienne is often left playing second fiddle to a less adept co-star. Here she really could have had a shining moment alongside Diaz. Unfortunately it seems as if The Other Woman wastes the cast’s potential and ends up being a rather messy and somewhat depressing attempt to make a female centred comedy.

Watch the trailer for The Other Woman:

Indeed critics have certainly not warmed to the movie, which so far holds a very not fresh 26% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Writing in the New York Times, Stephen Holden calls it “dumb, lazy, clumsily assembled and unoriginal.” Ty Burr from the Boston Globe feels it really has failed on all levels to present something positive to a female audience describing it as “one of those loud, cringe-y female-empowerment comedies that feels like it was made by people who hate women.” Critic Jeffrey Lyles tried to find the positives but it all became too much as he wrote, “If you squint hard enough, there's a decent premise here, but that hope quickly fades after a scene where a dog relieves itself in the living room. It's a symbolic statement of the movie itself,” ouch.

The Other Woman could be a prime example of when bad movies happen to good people. Or it could be an even better example of how the whole idea of female empowerment and the sisterhood is so often grossly mishandled on screen. Three women, who have been wronged by the same man, decide to team together and invest all their time and energy into talking about him and seeking revenge, yep that sounds pretty empowering. But seriously The Other Woman could give you a laugh this weekend, or it could just leave you feeling very frustrated and plotting your own revenge against the filmmakers of this one.

More: Read our review of The Other Woman

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