The Other Woman is a revenge comedy for women, who will probably enjoy it a good deal more than men-- for one thing, because they will probably see Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as more of a villain than men will and more deserving of what happens at the end, which is a little out of tone with most of what has gone before and descends into terrible taste, though the audience kept laughing. And The Other Woman is mostly about sex, but the ending is mostly about money.
Leslie Mann pretty much steals the show as the wife, a quite original character with an emotional range from tearful near-hysteria to real common sense. She represents reasonable self control the way Cameron Diaz represents cynical experience. None of the women lack intelligence and self control when it's needed-- in fact, so much self control that we are tempted to wonder just how much is really at stake. We see very little of anybody's life except the romantic, and nobody seems to be exactly crushed about that.
But there are strings of sophisticated, witty observations, a veneer of thoughtful content, a lot of gleaming tableware, and spotless cars and high-fashion dresses in fashionable decor.
Leslie Mann is all that's new in The Other Woman, but nobody is trying to do anything but amuse you, and the audience seemed to enjoy even the dirtiest scene, though I did not.
A number of the lines are really clever, and if structure is a little weak, things keep moving right along.
And The Other Woman shows us what former Wichitan Don Johnson is up to now, and he's having a good time, too.
