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

The Other Woman, starring Natalie Portman and Scott Cohen is a movie about marriage, infidelity, divorce, family, and heartbreak.  As you can see, it's not a cheery movie, definitely not a comedy.  No, The Other Woman is a drama - one that shows events and their consequences.

Cohen plays Jack, married to Carolyn (Lisa Kudrow), with a young son, William.  Portman plays Emilia, the new hire in Jack's office.  She is instantly smitten with Jack, admitting to having a schoolgirl crush on him.  The two enter into an affair, from which a pregnancy develops.  Jack leaves his wife, marries Emelia, then tragedy ensues when the baby dies.  Now Emilia is learning how to play the many roles she finds herself in - "the second wife", "the stepmother", and, from Carolyn's point of view - "the home wrecker".

Like I said above, this movie is all about consequences, and Emilia's learning about them, the hard way.  She is realizing that "the second wife", the one who broke up a marriage, doesn't rank as high in society as the first wife.  Disrespected by the "real" moms, resented by William, and downright hated by Carolyn, Emilia's coming to find out that sometimes life doesn't turn out the way you hoped.

This is a movie in which there really isn't a good guy (or gal) to root for.  All of the adults have made mistakes, and share blame when it comes to the current situation.  Let's face it - infidelity is wrong, no matter what reasons one tries to use to justify it.  It doesn't matter what state Jack's marriage is in - he shouldn't have cheated.  It doesn't matter that Emilia is attracted to Jack, she shouldn't have slept with him while he was married.  As for Carolyn, she might have been innocent in the breakup of her marriage, but she's not perfect either.  She poisons William against his new stepmom in ways that go beyond a woman scorned - she crosses into some downright cruel territory.  Especially when it comes to explaining to William about how he "should" feel about the baby's death.

The movie also shows how difficult Emelia's relationship with William is.  She makes some very bad choices with him.  But we're supposed to excuse her behavior, chalking it up to her inexperience as a parent, but I just saw a woman acting extremely immature.  When William says something insensitive, she blows up at him.  What a wonderful opportunity she had to calmly teach William a better way to behave.  A mature adult would have recognized that the kid wasn't being "bad"; he was simply speaking his mind without realizing how his words could hurt.  Emilia is an adult but she acts like the spoiled brat in this relationship.  I found myself really disliking her, even though I'm pretty sure I was supposed to sympathize with her.

As far as the performances go, all were pretty good except one.  I hated Lisa Kudrow in this role.  Every line she uttered made me cringe because she was using her "snooty" voice the entire time.  She does this in other roles - most notably on Web Therapy, which I absolutely can not stand.  In this movie, she's just horrendous.  I understand that the role calls for her to come off as angry and hurt.  But even in the final act, when she performs a kindness for the first time in the entire movie, she still sounds stuck up.

Originally titled Love and Other Impossible Pursuits and based on a book by that name, this movie is just "ok".  It's by no means funny, nor does it deliver any kind of sweet message.  It simply gives a glimpse into a slice of some lives and the consequences that result when people make some very bad decisions.

Recommended: No