The Other Woman (2014 film)

Plot

Carly, an attorney, has just started a relationship with Mark, a man she had sex with eight weeks earlier. She is upset when Mark tells her he has to go out of town but decides to go over to his house to seduce him. She is horrified to meet Mark's wife, Kate, whom she'd originally assumed to be Mark's housekeeper. While initially hostile, the two women befriend one another. Kate then discovers that he is seeing yet another woman, whom she at first believes to be Carly, but they both discover that Mark is seeing a third woman: Amber.

Carly and Kate travel to the beach, where Kate has a run-in with Amber, and the two women inform her that Mark has been cheating on all of them. All three women then decide to take revenge on him together. They spike Mark's drinks with estrogen to swell his nipples and a laxative to cause him to defecate heavy diarrhea; and add hair-removal cream into his shampoo.

In the course of carrying out the women's vicious pranks, they also discover that Mark has been embezzling much money from various companies at his workplace. Meanwhile, Carly begins to connect romantically with Kate's brother Phil. In addition, Amber confides to Carly that she is seeing someone else as well. However, their camaraderie begins to fall apart when Kate finds herself falling in love with Mark again after an investor's dinner. Carly exposes Mark's fraud, upsetting Kate.

Later, when Mark goes to the Bahamas on a supposed business trip, Kate decides to follow him there and expose him. She finds Carly and Amber at the airport, who explain that Mark has been using Kate as the owner of the companies he defrauded from, which would—were his fraud to be discovered—result in her going to prison. Kate also finds out that Mark has been seeing yet another woman: someone he has met on this trip. This, and the possibility of him facing prison, motivates her to take action with the help of Carly's legal expertise.

When Mark returns from vacation, he visits Carly at her office. He is then locked in that clear glass conference room by Carly's assistant and friend, Lydia, and is stunned to see all of the three women sitting in there together. They proceed to confront him with his infidelities and embezzlement. With Carly as her attorney, Kate presents divorce papers and a list of their assets. She reveals how she, as a CEO, has returned all of Mark's embezzled money back to those companies, which saves him from prison time but then leaves him bankrupt, much to his shock and hysterical outrage. Mark's business partner, Nick, then arrives and acknowledges his wife's work back after firing him. In his furious anger and rush to leave, he smashes into the glass office, cutting him and ripping his clothes. He excuses himself, fuming, from the three women, who all then applaud each other. He then afterwards finds his car being towed away before also receiving a punch in the face from Carly's father, Frank.

In the film's epilogue, Kate takes over Mark's previous job with Nick and is a CEO with successful companies, making big profits under her honest leadership. Carly and Phil fall in love, and the couple are expecting a child. Amber is in a relationship with Frank.

Cast

Development

On January 16, 2012, it was announced that 2007 Black Listed screenwriter Melissa Stack was hired by 20th Century Fox to write an untitled female revenge comedy, which Julie Yorn would produce through LBI Productions. The film's script was described as the original idea from the 1996 film The First Wives Club, but with younger leads. The film's title was revealed to be The Other Woman on November 13. In January of the following year, Nick Cassavetes signed on to direct the film.

Casting

On November 13, 2012, TheWrap reported that Cameron Diaz was in talks for the lead role. Diaz's representative also revealed that actress Kristen Wiig was under consideration for the wife role. As of March 13, 2012, Leslie Mann and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau were in talks to join the film, while Diaz was confirmed for her role. On April 15, Kate Upton joined the film. The same day, Taylor Kinney was announced to be in talks for a role. In April, Nicki Minaj signed on to make her feature film debut. On June 5, Don Johnson also joined the film to play Diaz's character's father.

Filming

In March 2013, the shooting was set to begin late-spring or early summer 2013 in New York City. Later it was told that the production would begin in May 2013. Principal photography for the movie began on April 29, 2013 and filming was completed by August 27, 2013. Much of the filming took place in parts of New York, including Long Island, The Hamptons, and Westhampton Beach. In late June, some scenes were also shot in Chinatown and at Dockers Waterside Restaurant on Dune Road, Quogue. From July 18–23, filming took place in New Providence, where Nassau, The Bahamas was used as the filming location. The Atlantis Paradise Island was also used as the shooting location. Isola Trattoria and Crudo Bar at Mondrian Hotel in SoHo, Manhattan was used for the scene in which the women met for a celebration toast at the end of the film.

Music

The Other Woman's music was composed by Aaron Zigman, who was reportedly set to score the film on May 31, 2013. The film featured songs from various artists including Etta James, Ester Dean, Morcheeba, Cyndi Lauper, Britt Nicole, Patty Griffin, Lorde, Keyshia Cole and Iggy Azalea.

Release

On March 31, 2014, the film had a world premiere in Amsterdam; the next day, on April 1, it had a UK premiere at the Curzon Mayfair Cinema in London. The film later had a US premiere on December 21 in Westwood, California.

On March 25, 2014, Fox appealed the R-rating, which Motion Picture Association of America gave the film for sexual references. However the studio wanted a PG-13 rating. On April 9, the MPAA's rating appeals board took back the R and gave the film with a PG-13; the sources confirmed that there were no changes made to get the film PG-13. The Other Woman was released on April 25 in the United States.

Box office

The film was a box office hit, earning over five times its production costs. The Other Woman opened at number 1 in North America on April 25, 2014 in 3,205 theaters debuting atop the weekend box office with earnings of $24.7 million across the three days. The film has grossed $83,911,193 in America and $112,870,000 in other countries for a worldwide total of $196,781,193.

Home media

The Other Woman was released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 29, 2014. The Blu-ray edition features the Gag Reel, "Giggle Fit", Gallery and deleted scenes. In the United States, the film has grossed $9,592,336 from DVD sales and $4,163,463 from Blu-ray sales, making a total of $13,755,799.

Critical response

The Other Woman received generally negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 24% based on 149 reviews with an average rating of 4.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Other Woman definitely boasts a talented pedigree, but all that skill is never fully brought to bear on a story that settles for cheap laughs instead of reaching its empowering potential." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 39 out of 100 based on 35 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Justin Chang of Variety said, "Beneath the wobbly pratfalls and the scatological setpieces, there's no denying the film's mean-spirited kick, or its more-than-passing interest in what makes its women tick." The Hollywood Reporter's critic Todd McCarthy said: "It would have helped if director Nick Cassavetes had something resembling a sure hand at comedy." Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club gave the film grade C-, saying "All of a sudden, a spotted Great Dane squats in the middle of a Manhattan apartment and out plop several gleaming, glistening CGI turds. It's one of those cases where a Hollywood movie inadvertently summarizes itself in a single shot." Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying "Line to line, it's fresher than any number of guy-centric "Hangover"-spawned affairs, despite director Cassavetes' lack of flair for slapstick." The Boston Globe's Ty Burr gave the film one out of four stars and said, "It's "The First Wives Club" rewritten for younger, less demanding audiences, or a "9 to 5" with absolutely nothing at stake." Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice said, "The Other Woman doesn't give these actresses much to do except look ridiculous, if not sneaky and conniving."

Michael Sragow of Orange County Register gave the film grade C, saying that the film is "a coarse, rickety comedy." Richard Corliss wrote for Time magazine that "All three women are less watchable and amusing than Nicki Minaj as Carly's legal assistant Lydia." Film critic Stephen Holden of The New York Times said that the film is "so dumb, lazy, clumsily assembled and unoriginal, it could crush any actor forced to execute its leaden slapstick gags and mouth its crude, humorless dialogue." James Berardinelli of ReelViews wondered, "Has it come to this for director Nick Cassavetes?", comparing his career negatively to that of his father, John Cassavetes. Berardinelli elaborated, "what a comedown to find him in charge of such an unfocused, unfunny, scatologically-obsessed 'comedy.'" Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.Com gave the film two out of four stars and said, "While "The Other Woman" raises some thoughtful questions about independence, identity and the importance of sisterhood, ultimately it would rather poop on them and then throw them through a window in hopes of the getting the big laugh." Wesley Morris of Grantland said, "No one knows which takes are funny and which aren't. More than once, all three women, especially poor Upton, are caught looking like they don't know what they're doing."

Bilge Ebiri of the magazine New York said, "You can't shake the feeling that in a just world, all these women – even Kate Upton – would have better material than this." Connie Ogle of The Miami Herald gave the film three out of four stars and called the film a "goofy, ridiculous, with more gross-out humor than is strictly necessary but still funny. It falls into the category of Girlfriend Films – as in, go with your girlfriends and leave your date/partner/spouse at home with the PlayStation or the NBA playoffs." Colin Covert of Star Tribune gave the film three out of four stars, saying "It's an escapist women's empowerment comedy like many others, but elevated by the simple virtue of being, for most of its length, very, very funny." Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post gave the film one and a half stars out of four, saying "A movie as generic and forgettable as the sofa-size art on its characters' walls." Linda Holmes wrote for NPR, calling the film "a conceptually odious, stupid-to-the-bone enterprise ..." Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times advised guys to "Step away from the vehicle, because The Other Woman is out of control and intent on running down a certain kind of male."