The Other Woman (2014 film)
The Other Woman is a 2014 American romantic comedy film directed by Nick Cassavetes, written by Melissa Stack, and starring Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann, Kate Upton, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Nicki Minaj, Taylor Kinney, and Don Johnson. The film follows three women—Carly (Diaz), Kate (Mann), and Amber (Upton)—who are all romantically involved with the same man (Coster-Waldau). After finding out about each other, the trio take their revenge on him.
Development of The Other Woman began in January 2012, when 20th Century Fox hired Stack to write the script, based on the original idea from the 1996 comedy The First Wives Club. Casting was done between November 2012 and June 2013. Filming began on April 29, 2013, in locations including Manhattan, Long Island, the Hamptons, Dockers Waterside Restaurant on Dune Road in Quogue, and the Bahamas, and it concluded on August 27 that year. Aaron Zigman composed the score and LBI Productions produced the film. The film was released on April 25, 2014, in the United States, and distributed worldwide by 20th Century Fox. The film received mostly negative reviews from critics, but was a box office success, grossing $196.7 million worldwide.
Plot[edit]
Carly Whitten (Cameron Diaz), a New York attorney, is dating handsome and charismatic businessman Mark King (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), with whom she has been having sex for two months. Carly plans to introduce Mark to her father Frank (Don Johnson) over dinner, only for Mark to cancel on them and go out of town because of a "flood" at his Connecticut home. Encouraged by Frank, Carly dresses up in a sexy plumber's outfit and heads to Mark's house to seduce him. However, she is horrified to be met at the door by Mark's wife Kate (Leslie Mann), whom she had assumed to be Mark's housekeeper. Thrown for a loop by this revelation, Carly flees in embarrassment and shock.
The next day, Kate shows up at Carly's law firm, having found her contact details in Mark's phone book. Carly admits to a panicked Kate that Mark has been cheating on her, but assures her she had no idea Mark was married. Initially annoyed by her constant presence at her apartment or work, Carly begins to warm up to Kate after a wild sleepover and a boozy heart-to-heart. Kate discovers that Mark is seeing yet another woman, who she thinks is Carly secretly continuing her previous relationship with Mark. Confronting Carly about this, they argue before realizing that Mark is seeing a third woman as both Carly and Kate have been refusing sex with him.
Carly and Kate follow Mark to the Hamptons, where they stay at the house of Kate's brother Phil (Taylor Kinney), who is immediately attracted to Carly. The duo spies on Mark and find him with his mistress Amber (Kate Upton), a beautiful swimsuit supermodel, on the beach. When Mark leaves for the gym, they inform Amber that Mark has been cheating on all of them. All three women decide to get revenge on him together. Kate spikes his smoothies with estrogen pills to swell his nipples, has their dog licking his toothbrush before soaking it in their toilet, and adds hair-removal cream to his shampoo. Carly spikes his water with a laxative to give him heavy diarrhea. Amber uses an ugly drag queen sexual partner against him.
While carrying out the various pranks, they discover Mark has been embezzling money from various startup companies his workplace helps to develop. Meanwhile, Carly begins to connect romantically and feel a bond with Phil. The women's camaraderie begins to fall apart when Kate finds herself still in love with Mark after caving in and having sex with him. Carly exposes Mark's fraud before texting him, upsetting Kate and Amber. However, Kate later realizes that Mark hasn’t changed after he catches a cold and suspects he has an STD (since Amber claimed she has one to avoid sleeping with him again) and he tries tricking her into taking medication for it too.
Later, Mark goes to the Bahamas on a supposed business trip and Kate decides to follow and expose him. When she arrives she is surprised to find Carly and Amber waiting for her. They explain that Mark has set up Kate as the owner of the companies he defrauded, which, if his fraud is discovered, would result in Kate going to prison rather than him. She also finds out he has been seeing yet another woman, someone he has met on this trip. This, and the possibility of facing prison, motivates her to take action, with the help of Carly's legal expertise. Amber confides to Carly that she is seeing someone else too.
When Mark returns from the trip, he visits Carly at her office. He is locked in a conference room by her assistant and friend Lydia (Nicki Minaj) and is stunned to see his wife, his girlfriend, and his summer fling sitting there all 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, named CEO by Mark, has returned all of his embezzled money to the companies from which he stole. That saves Mark from jail time but leaves him bankrupt, much to his shock and hysterical outrage. Mark's business partner Nick (David Thornton) then fires him and acknowledges Kate's work. Everyone watches in amusement as a furious Mark accidentally smashes into an empty room's glass paneling, drastically hurting his nose and ripping his coat, and exits to find his car being towed for being near the red zone before receiving a departing punch in the face from Frank as payback. Some time later, Carly, Kate, and Amber happily toast to their friendship, promising to never sleep with the same man ever again.
In the postscript, Carly and Phil move in together and Carly becomes pregnant with Phil's child. Kate takes over Mark's job with Nick and becomes CEO of several successful companies, making big profits under her honest leadership. Frank is revealed as the man Amber is dating and the two travel the world together.
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
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.[7] The film's script was described as the original idea from the 1996 film The First Wives Club, but with younger leads.[7] The film's title was revealed to be The Other Woman on November 13.[8] In January of the following year, Nick Cassavetes signed on to direct the film.[9]
Casting[edit]
In November 2012, Cameron Diaz was in talks for the lead role.[8] Diaz's representative also revealed that actress Kristen Wiig was under consideration for the wife role.[8] In March 2013, Leslie Mann and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau were in talks to join the film, and Diaz was confirmed for her role.[10] The following month, Kate Upton, Taylor Kinney, and Nicki Minaj, in her feature film debut, joined the film.[11][12][5] Don Johnson was cast in June as Diaz's character's father.[6]
Reception[edit]
Critical response[edit]
The Other Woman received mainly negative reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported a 25% approval rating based on 164 reviews with an average rating of 4.24/10. 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."[30] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 39 out of 100 based on reviews from 35 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[31] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[32]