This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
There's only one thing I can say to the scattershot, scatterbrained comedy "The Other Woman": This isn't working out, and I need to start seeing other movies.
It starts with a whirlwind romance between hotshot lawyer Carly (Cameron Diaz) and financier Mark (Nicolaj Coster-Waldau), until we learn that Mark is actually married to Kate (Leslie Mann). Soon, Carly and Kate figure it out, too. Instead of hating each other, they bond as friends determined to get back at Mark — and when they find him with an even hotter girlfriend, Amber (played by supermodel Kate Upton), the three join forces to take Mark down.
This promising setup falls apart in rookie writer Melissa K. Stack's script, which is tonally all over the map, and with a thousand terrible choices by director Nick Cassavetes ("The Notebook"), including lapses into terrible slapstick comedy, obvious musical cues and the casting of the acting-impaired Nicki Minaj as Carly's sassy secretary.
Mann actually tries to maintain some sense of a consistent, likable character through the mess and is the only one who comes away with her dignity intact.
Hhj
'The Other Woman'
Opens Friday, April 25, at theaters everywhere; rated PG-13 for mature thematic material, sexual references and language; 109 minutes.