Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

It starts out being one type of movie, then turns itself around and becomes something else.  And pulling that switcheroo is the one thing about this movie that I actually admired.  Because without that twist, The Other Man would have been nothing more than a fairly lame story about a man chasing his wife's lover.  I've seen that before.  Too many times.

In this case, Liam Neeson is the husband, Laura Linney is the wife, and Antonio Banderas is "the other man".  We're introduced to Peter and Lisa, and see a reasonably happy marriage.  Some of their interactions with each other are a bit bizarre, but we don't suspect there's anything majorly wrong in their marriage.  Next thing we know, Lisa's gone and Peter's furious.  A bit of snooping around in Lisa's cell phone and email confirms what Peter has suspected: Lisa has been having an affair.  And I don't mean a one-night stand - I mean a long term love affair over many years.  Peter discovers who the "other man" is, and takes off to Italy to confront him.

That's the story, in a nutshell.  We get to watch Neeson being - well - his usual character.  Devious, slightly out-of-control, the viewer never really knows exactly what he's thinking. We just know he's angry! 

Banderas plays Ralph, the dashing, smooth "player" - the man who brought Lisa such excitement, showing her a world she never knew. 

The script, to this point of the movie, was nothing special.  In fact, I thought it was quite lame.  I had a lot of questions that weren't being answered.  And a lot of times where I thought that Peter was acting in ways that made very little sense.  I understand that he's angry at his wife's infidelity, but when it came to his interactions with Ralph, I simply didn't get some of the things he said, and did.

Then there's Peter's daughter (Romola Garai) and her boyfriend (Craig Parkinson).  I don't understand why these characters were included - they added nothing to the story.  Some of the daughter's lines were so bizarre, as to be completely distracting.  And the boyfriend was just completely useless.  I really have to wonder if, at some point, there was more to these characters, but an editing job left them on the cutting room floor?  Because the way they are, in the final version of the movie, is just a waste.

So you can see that I wasn't overly fond of the movie, to this point.  But then it happened.  A little "gotcha" from the writers - and the script suddenly became a lot more interesting.  Not interesting enough to make up for the lame first hour, but at least the movie redeemed itself a little bit.  I still don't recommend it, however, because it's a case of "too little, too late".  But at least it saved itself from being in the "same old" bucket. 

Recommended: No