Blu-Ray Review: Natalie Portman Can’t Save Melodramatic ‘The Other Woman’

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CHICAGO – Natalie Portman gets betrayed by a seriously flawed screenplay in the melodrama “The Other Woman,” formerly called and based on a book called “Love and Other Impossible Pursuits.” After playing film festivals in 2009, the Don Roos’ film is finally getting a Blu-ray and DVD release to capitalize on Portman’s fame from winning the Oscar for “Black Swan.” Despite typically-strong work by the multi-talented star, the movie’s a tonal mess with an inconsistent screenplay that the strong central performance cannot save.

HollywoodChicago.com Blu-Ray Rating: 1.5/5.0
Blu-Ray Rating: 1.5/5.0

Working back and forth in a deeply-mistaken screenplay structure of flashbacks that only serve to keep the audience from getting to know the characters, “The Other Woman” centers on the life of Emilia Greenleaf. The original title seemed far more appropriate as it doesn’t carry nearly as much stigma as the new one, which places a certain degree of blame on our title character that I’m not sure was intended by the author.

To be fair, infidelity is a major factor in Emilia’s story. Not only did her father and mother split after dear old dad strayed but Emilia herself was the mistress that stole away Jack (Scott Cohen) from his horrific wife (Lisa Kudrow). With Jack came a son named William (Charlie Tahan), who is being used as a pawn by his birth mother to torment the woman who ruined her perfect family. To make matters worse, Jack and Emilia lost a child three days after she was born to SIDS. Was it Emilia’s home wrecking that caused her baby’s death? Of course not, but these are the issues that work much better in fiction than in film and only lead to melodrama in “The Other Woman.”

The Other Woman was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on May 17, 2011
The Other Woman was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on May 17, 2011
Photo credit: IFC

The biggest problem with “The Other Woman” is the demonizing of Jack’s ex-wife. Kudrow plays an awful, horrible human being, throwing off the balance of the whole thing. And, as much as I like Kudrow as an actress, she’s just not genuine or believable here. It doesn’t help that Jack is a snooze and William is a plot device, which leaves Portman bobbing on her own in a sea of unbelievable dialogue and false characters.

It truly says something that Natalie Portman is such a strong actress that she can nearly rescue a script this troubled. That she ultimately falls victim to the melodrama and unbelievable script can’t really be blamed on her. There’s a reason this took two years to make it to a few theaters and then a quickie home release. Everyone wanted to forget about it for a reason.

Synopsis:
Academy Award winner Natalie Portman (Black Swan) lights up the screen with an “utterly fearless performance” (Rob Nelson, Variety) in this frank, funny, and heart-wrenching adaptation of bestselling author Ayelet Waldman’s novel Love And Other Impossible Pursuits. Emilia (Portman) is a Harvard law school graduate who falls in love with her married boss, Jack (Scott Cohen, The Understudy), a high-powered New York lawyer. Starting a new life together, Emilia and Jack’s happiness turns to grief when they lose their newborn daughter. Devastated but determined to carry on, Emilia struggles to connect with her precocious new stepson William (Charlie Tahan, I Am Legend), and resist the interference of Jack’s jealous ex-wife (Lisa Kudrow, Easy A. An all-star cast makes this journey of love, loss, and rebuilding one of the year’s most heartfelt and touching dramas.

“The Other Woman” stars Natalie Portman, Scott Cohen, Lisa Kudrow, Anthony Rapp, Lauren Ambrose, and Charlie Tahan. It was directed by Don Roos. It was released on Blu-ray and DVD on May 17th, 2011.

HollywoodChicago.com content director Brian Tallerico

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

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