Other Woman, The (2010) [Blu-ray]
Drama

Tagline: Love makes everything possible

Academy Award winner Natalie Portman (Black Swan) lights up the screen with an "utterly fearless performance" (Rob Nelson, Variety) in this frank, funny, and heart-wrenching adaptation of bestselling author Ayelet Waldman's novel Love And Other Impossible Pursuits. Emilia (Portman) is a Harvard law school graduate who falls in love with her married boss, Jack (Scott Cohen, The Understudy), a high-powered New York lawyer. Starting a new life together, Emilia and Jack's happiness turns to grief when they lose their newborn daughter. Devastated but determined to carry on, Emilia struggles to connect with her precocious new stepson William (Charlie Tahan, I Am Legend), and resist the interference of Jack's jealous ex-wife (Lisa Kudrow, Easy A. An all-star cast makes this journey of love, loss, and rebuilding one of the year's most heartfelt and touching dramas.

User Comment: *** This review may contain spoilers *** Sal D'Souza from Ontario, Canada, 18 September 2009 • I saw this at the Toronto Film Festival. I go to university in Toronto, and I decided on impulse to watch one of the movies in between my classes, and this one fit so I wouldn't have to be late for my next class. I'm very glad I saw it.

The film is about Emilia (Natalie Portman), who lives with her husband John (Scott Cohen), and her stepson William (Charlie Tahan). We watch as her story is told through flashbacks and we learn that John was married (to Carolyne, played by Lisa Kudrow) and had an affair with Emilia. He soon divorces Carolyne and marries Emilia. We watch as Emilia struggles to keep her life together with her marriage strained by the death of their 3-day-old daughter Isabel, and William's resentment towards her.

I really liked the acting in this movie. Natalie Portman is really natural in this role. Scott Cohen and the young Charlie Tahan were very good too, and Lisa Kudrow too, even though she didn't have a lot of scenes.

I liked the story, and I didn't find the pace of the film to be dragging. The characters were well written too- I was always able to see their side of the story and could sympathize and understand them, even when they contradicted with other characters.

To me, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits was a very good film overall.

Summary: Quite a nice movie!

User Comment: *** This review may contain spoilers *** gradyharp from United States, 9 February 2011 • THE OTHER WOMAN is a film that is a bit difficult to watch both because of the thematic material and because of the uneven quality of the film itself. Based on the novel LOVE AND OTHER IMPOSSIBLE PURSUITS by Ayelet Waldman (the original release of this film in 2009 used this title) and adapted for the screen by writer/director Don Roos, the story deals with SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), divorce, step-parenting, the legal vagaries that surround divorce and remarriage, and loss. One of the reasons the film didn't make it on first theater release is that it was advertised as 'A comedy/drama that details the story of a woman's difficult relationship with her stepson.' Yes, that is a small part of the story, but this film is hardly a comedy and in fact it seems to have difficulty in deciding just what the main story is!

The opening credits begin with images of an infant girl but as soon as the action begins we are introduced to Emilia (Natalie Portman) and her husband Jack (Scott Cohen) and son William (Charlie Tahan) There is an undefined tension that is soon explained through flashbacks: Emilia fell in love with Jack who was married to OB/GYN physician Carolyne (Lisa Kudrow) and the love affair quickly developed into Jack's divorcing Carolyne and marrying Emilia. The newlyweds promptly had a baby girl who lived only three days, leaving Emilia in a prolonged state of grieving and denial. Carolyne is a controlling viper and makes the couple's life miserable, refusing complete visitation privileges with William, creating a toxic relationship between Emilia and her 'stepson' William. Emilia's friends (Lauren Ambrose and Anthony Rapp) try to make Emilia's life easier but the friction between Emilia and William as well as the constant interference by Carolyne eventually lead to a collapse in Emilia's and Jack's relationship. Some 'truths' come out about the death of Jack an Emilia's daughter and the response to those statements changes everyone in the story - including Emilia's divorced mother and father. Lessons in how to forgive and how to love complete the story.

Natalie Portman proves her acting chops in this difficult, multidimensional role and her performance is enhanced by that of Charlie Tahan as the young William. The rest of the cast is not of the same caliber, failing to make us care about their characters enough to find their significance in this rocky script. Though there are many flaws in the film making it seem to drag on too long (almost two hours), the opportunity to see the gradual growth of the acting career of Natalie Portman is reason enough to watch this little New York relationship drama.

Summary: The Growth of Natalie Portman.

CSW] -2.6- This is an excellently acted and directed movie but…it is really about a group of losers making a series of bad decisions and then suffering the consequences. Some issues do get resolved but it does show the slowly unraveling caused by tragic losses and by the painful process of trying to make things right again ever when part of that process included healing your own internal problems. It does include some neurotic and self-centered people and as such could act as a guide on how some people handle those problems. But in the end it was only the great acting by Natalie Portman as Emilia that pulled this one off.
[V4.0-A4.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.

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