A movie full of toilet humour cheapens the rather amusing women.
| “The Other Woman” stars Leslie Mann, Cameron Diaz and Kate Upton as the jilted wife, the girlfriend and the mistress, respectively. Mark King (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is responsible for the upheaval of these women’s lives (or at the least the first two), and they’re going to make him pay. So get ready for revenge humour, chick flick humour and toilet humour – literally and especially toilet humour. | | 2014
Directed by: Nick Cassavetes
Screenplay by: Melissa Stack
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann, Kate Upton and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
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Revenge humour can be funny and chick flick humour can be welcome in the right movie, but jokes of dogs crapping on the floor, people farting, and guys getting diarrhea and not making it to the toilet on time are just not funny. People laughed, so perhaps I should blame the audience instead of the movie. There are a handful of funny lines, but with most Hollywood comedies when you have a group of writers in a room all trying to get their funny line in the movie, you’re going to get a bunch of funny lines whether they all belong or not.
Cameron Diaz had the best delivery, and she also had the best character. Carly Whitten (Diaz) is a successful, independent career woman, and while she’s not desperate for a man, she wouldn’t mind companionship. And when she finds out that her current boyfriend is in fact married, there is no humming and hawing. She’s not going to break-up a marriage. When Kate King (Leslie Mann) comes to find her, Carly makes it clear that she wasn’t a mistress because she never knew he was married. It was a much needed clarification to further advance the great character.
Mann’s Kate was this manic ball of crazy energy that can wear anyone down in a matter of seconds. Think of Isla Fisher in Wedding Crashers but as a 40-year-old Stepford wife. Leslie Mann is pretty good at physical comedy, but over-the-top would be an understatement. Kate Upton plays Amber, the actual mistress. She’s cute and charming but she’s mostly relegated to the role of eye-candy. Female eye-candy in a chick flick, go figure.
Carly and Kate are the main characters. Despite Kate’s manic demeanor, the elder Hollywood stateswomen added a touch of maturity to the revenge proceedings, managing to make it somewhat funny. The comedy was in short order, but surprisingly there were a few wrinkles in the story. I was expecting a two-hour version of the trailer, but there was a bit more to the characters and the direction of the plot that it was perfectly capable of keeping your attention.
Actual comedy would have served these characters much better than the current plan of female-style revenge. But I guess it all depends on how funny you think toilet humour is.
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