The Other Woman (2009)

The story of a woman dealing with her daughter's death while trying to keep her marriage and her relationship with her stepson.

Director:

Don Roos

Writers:

Don Roos (screenplay), Ayelet Waldman (novel)

Stars:

Natalie Portman, Scott Cohen, Lisa Kudrow

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Natalie Portman	...	Emilia
Scott Cohen	...	Jack
Lisa Kudrow	...	Carolyn
Charlie Tahan	...	William
Lauren Ambrose	...	Mindy
Michael Cristofer	...	Sheldon
Debra Monk	...	Laura
Mona Fastvold	...	Sonia (as Mona Lerche)
Anthony Rapp	...	Simon
Kendra Kassebaum	...	Sharlese
Elizabeth Marvel	...	Pia
Mary Joy	...	Marilyn
Maria Dizzia	...	Jaime Brennan
Ira Hawkins	...	Businessman
Laura Odeh	...	Waitress

Storyline

The story of a woman dealing with her daughter's death while trying to keep her marriage and her relationship with her stepson.

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Plot Keywords:

stepmother | manhattan new york city | based on novel | united states of america | sids | 

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Taglines:

Love makes everything possible.

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexual content and language

Did You Know?

Trivia

A song from The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is playing when Emelia and William go to the skating rink.

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Goofs

When snapping a picture of the newborn baby a flash can clearly be seen in the image, though no external flash is visible nor the internal flash from the Nikon camera.

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Quotes

Emilia: Why is she dead?

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Connections

Referenced in Conan: Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Humor Truck (2011)

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Soundtracks

Sturm Von Kunststuffe
Written by Jay Weigel
Performed by Jay Weigel
Courtesy of Carondelet Music Group, LLC

User Reviews

It could have been so much more...

"The Other Woman" or "Love and Other Impossible Pursuits" as it is called, is labeled as a comedy and drama? Comedy? Are you kidding me? The movie is pretty far from being funny. A drama, yes. But comedy? No way...

The story told in the movie is about Emilia having to come to terms with being the stepmother to William, a rather unique child. But at the same time she is struggling with the trauma of having lost her child, a rocky marriage to Jack and having to take the verbal beatings of his ex-wife Carolyne. The movie deals with a lot of good subjects, matters that are close to heart and real life. However, sadly enough, it never really fully delves into these matters, it is just superficially touched. And that is a terrible shame, because the movie had potential to become a very touchy and heartfelt movie. Instead it just came out as a superficial, shallow movie that wanted too much but delivered too little.

As for the cast in the movie, well they had some really good names on the list, lots of good actors and actresses. Natalie Portman portrays Emilia in a very good way, and you do buy into her performance, except for the crying scenes, they were just not sinking in, they didn't work at all. Lisa Kudrow did a good job as Carolyne (Jack's ex-wife), however, Kudrow is still stuck with the Phoebe Buffay image, so it was casting a big shadow over her, unfortunately. Charlie Tahan did a marvelous job in portraying the troubled boy William. And he was perhaps the most memorable of all in the movie.

This movie had potential to be great, but it failed to deliver, and that was a shame. When the movie was over, I was left with a thought saying "was that really it?". I was disappointed in how the movie dealt with the deep matters that were part of the storyline. And as such, I am only rating the movie a 4 out of 10. The superficial nature of the movie drags it way down, but the solid performances of the cast manages to make the movie bearable to sit through.

Sadly, this movie was not all it could have been...

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 October 2010 (Russia)

Also Known As:

17 Photos of Isabel

Filming Locations:

Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,224, 6 February 2011

Gross USA:

$25,423

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,451,343

Company Credits

Production Co:

Incentive Filmed Entertainment, Handsomecharlie Films, Is or Isn't Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min 119 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1