Movie summary of The Other Man by Michael the Moviegoer.
THE OTHER MAN = *
“Insignificant Other”
As movie plots go, “The Other Man” is a real head-scratcher. Not because it’s complicated or twisty. But because it’s so dull it boggles the mind as to how it could have attracted such a top-notch cast. Liam Neeson and Antonio Banderas are two men with an obsession for Laura Linney. One of those men, Neeson, is her husband.
That might sound like a mildly intriguing plot. But as the plot twists, what gets revealed has the opposite effect of a thriller. It just bores us.
There are beautiful Italian locations from Milan to Lake Como. But when the establishing shots of these locations are the film’s most memorable moments, you know something is drastically wrong.
The actors all supply enough emotional outbursts to help make an interesting preview trailer. But in context with the complete film it’s nothing more than horrendously bad overacting by actors who should know better.
Director Richard Eyre’s previous effort was the deliciously dark “Notes On A Scandal”, a much better psychological drama with winning performances from Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett. Perhaps his latest work is an example of how a director is only ever as good as his material. “The Other Man” plays like the type of film you would have expected to skip a theatrical release and head straight to video.
DVD Double-Feature: An all-too-similar yet supremely better movie is 2002’s “Unfaithful”. Adrian Lyne’s drama of betrayal and obsession stars Richard Gere and an Oscar-nominated Diane Lane as a married couple coming to terms with infidelity with deadly consequences. This is the kind of intensely suspensful romantic-triangle drama that “The Other Man” hoped to be but never comes close to achieving.
Michael The Moviegoer
