Film review: The Other Woman

An inferior script leaves the likeable cast of Cameron Diaz and Leslie Mann all floundering.

From left, Leslie Mann, Nicki Minaj, Cameron Diaz, and Kate Upton in a scene from The Other Woman. Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox

The Other Woman

Director: Nick Cassavetes

Starring: Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann, Kate Upton, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

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The Other Woman takes that adage about a woman scorned and multiplies it by three. Leslie Mann plays Kate, a ditsy wife to the unfaithful Mark (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), who's cheating on her with the high-flying lawyer Carly (Cameron Diaz). When Kate finds out, she confronts Carly – who had no idea Mark was married. Rather than catfight, they bond to become "the weirdest friends ever", then discover Mark is three-timing them.

You can probably guess the rest, as the girls recruit Mark’s latest conquest Amber (Kate Upton) and set out to exact revenge. The results are predictable, dull and mildly stomach-churning: laxatives in his drink, hair remover in his shampoo – you get the picture.

Reuniting with Diaz after their 2009 film My Sister's Keeper, the filmmaker Nick Cassavetes has assembled a likeable enough cast, but an inferior script leaves them all floundering.

"This is so unoriginal," yells Diaz's character, and you can't help but agree. Having Girls Just Want to Have Fun on the soundtrack – could they not have thought of something more unique for a female buddy comedy? Even the usually reliable Mann seems lost without Judd Apatow behind her, while the less said about the Sports Illustrated model Upton's contribution the better.