The Other Woman (2009–119 mins) N. Portman, S. Cohen, L. Kudrow

The other woman is a lesser known Indy drama about love, loss, and the fight of a woman to get over all of it. Portman plays a young lawyer named Emilia Greenleaf. She’s a smart attorney who grabs the eye of one of the partners and thus, they have an affair. After she becomes pregnant he leaves his wife and they are married. Unfortunately the baby dies shortly, just days after the birth, leaving both mother and father scarred and heartbroken. Yet, not only do they have to deal with this loss, they have another side of the family to deal with. William is Emilia’s difficult step-son, and with him comes his even more difficult mother (the Ex) Carolyne. In a way to get over some of her loss Emilia eventually tries to form some sort of bond with the boy despite all his mother’s best efforts to thwart such a relationship. It’s a slow, often difficultly dramatic tale, which overstays it’s welcome on a number of occasions.

We want to sit and watch and hope Emilia can fix herself and get over her loss in some way, but we keep getting new things thrown at us at every turn. After a few complications the whole movie starts to become tiring, heavy and tedious, almost forcing us to look at our watch hoping the resolution will get here soon. Alas, my friend, it’s 2 hours so the resolution is beyond another ton of time and ton more complications.

As for the actors themselves… Portman is decent here, a tad inconsistent but still believable as the grieving mother. She often comes across a bit childish, where she should be trying to be a bit older for the role, yet still acting as if she’s a teenager throughout. At times convincing at times bad. Scott Cohen as her husband Jack is a bit subdued and looks to be phoning it in at times as well. However there are two standout performances here. Both Charlie Tahan as the step son William, and Lisa Kudrow as the ex wife are excellent. Tahan brings naivety and emotion to the role as a son who is caught a bit in the middle of the families. Kudrow brings the sharp emotion and raw power to a woman who has been scorned by her ex-husband and wants to shield her son from everything negative in the relationship and the world.

Verdict–> Even a few decent performances cannot overcome the shortcomings of the film. At times it is an entertaining watch, but it quickly overstays it’s welcome and becomes more of a chore then an enjoyment. It’s not awful but just not one that I would recommend very highly unless you like very heavy convoluted family dramas. Lesser tier recommendation just a hair above most horror films and anything with subtitles.

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