By Colin Covert
FILM: The Other Woman
CAST: Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann, Kate Upton, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
DIRECTION: Nick Cassavetes
In The Other Woman, they throw everything at the wall to see what sticks. Most of it does. 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.
Set in an upper-class milieu of sleek Manhattan condos, designer clothes and pristine Caribbean beaches, the story follows three women who realise they’re being triple-timed by a cad and join forces to deliver his comeuppance.
Cameron Diaz plays the brains of the operation, a sharp-tongued killer attorney in a whirlwind romance with a handsome executive (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). Leslie Mann is his blithely daffy wife, who is also unaware of his duplicity. When the women discover one another’s existence, the comic sparks fly.
The characters are surprisingly well-developed for this sort of genre fare. Diaz plays her character as a woman of steely intelligence and cynical wit, an alpha female used to stiff-arming her adversaries and bailing out of unsatisfactory emotional entanglements. Melissa Stack’s bright, farcical screenplay gives this go-getter plenty of tart ammunition.
Mann, an exuberant comedienne, makes a feast of her role, the wronged wife as an innocent, oversharing catalyst of chaos. It’s a career-best performance for Mann, a fizzy brew of vulnerability and pluck. Smiling a bit desperately, dressed in too-chipper florals, she blathers on with the attention-starved energy of a yapping Chihuahua. When she tracks down Diaz, it’s not for a resentful wife vs rival showdown, but because she needs to talk — in breathy-voiced torrents. Since her husband barely notices her, she needs someone, anyone else to fill the void, even if it’s his mistress.
Diaz, whose character can be a bit of a shrew, reluctantly assents to a conversation. Jaded viewer that I am, I found myself thinking, “I can’t believe I’m laughing at this stuff” and laughing nonetheless. Pratfalls are kept to a bare minimum.
In another nice touch, the women aren’t immediately hell-bent on retaliating against Coster-Waldau. Diaz declares that “monogamy isn’t a natural state” and wants to move ahead with her life. Mann vacillates, more than half ready to preserve her hollow but privileged status quo. But when they spot him with yet another other woman (Sports Illustrated cover girl Kate Upton), they recruit her in a plan to teach him a painful lesson or three.
The film has its share of defects. It’s overlong by a good 15 minutes and loses steam in the third act, just when things should be gathering momentum. The musical cues are regrettably on the nose (the Mission Impossible theme in a detective interlude, a maudlin cover of La Vie En Rose for a passage of romantic letdown).
As a model/actress, Upton is no Brooklyn Decker. Still, the overall tone is of buoyant good cheer and jazzy spontaneity. Director Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook) encourages his actors to perform their hearts out, and most of them deliver above-average work in return. The pert, nimble Mann and wisecracking Diaz have a sparkling comedic chemistry; they seem to enjoy each other’s company.
Coster-Waldau is solid as a man who has learned to fake sincerity well enough to fool smart women. When he acts repentant after being exposed, he half-fools us, too. Even in an explosive Dumb and Dumber toilet scene, he brings his A game. That, people, is acting. — Star Tribune/MCT
Cracking pace
FILM: Dead Drop
CAST: Cole Hauser, Luke Goss, Nestor Carbonell
DIRECTION: R Ellis Frazier
Luke Goss is rapidly becoming the next Bruce Willis and Dead Drop has one of his best roles. Goss is a CIA-operative-turned government-contractor who infiltrates a north Mexican drug smuggling ring. When his cover is blown, he is thrown out of a plane at 5,000ft but miraculously survives the fall.
He then embarks on a violent mission to find the man who threw him out of the plane. The villain, played by the always great Nestor Carbonell, isn’t a cardboard cutout but actually quite sympathetic.
The relationship between Goss and Carbonell is well developed.
The film moves along at a cracking pace. Goss is out for revenge and anyone who gets in his way either gets hurt or killed.
Cole Hauser also has a small but integral role as the CIA man sent out to stop Goss from blowing the whole operation; his character is interesting as you aren’t sure whether he’s a good guy or not so you are kept guessing. Overall, Dead Drop has characters that you actually care about.
Crisis in family
FILM: A Day Late and a Dollar Short
CAST: Whoopi Goldberg, Ving Rhames, Kimberly Elise, Mekhi Phifer
DIRECTION: Jamie Mitchell
Whoopi Goldberg leads an all-star cast in this film adaptation of Terry McMillan‘s fifth book, A Day Late and a Dollar Short. The made-for-TV movie follows Viola Price (Goldberg) as she struggles to keep her dysfunctional family together in the midst of her own health crisis. After a devastating asthma attack, Viola learns her days are numbered and begins planning a Paris theme 60th birthday at which she hopes to gather her family one last time.
A happy celebration turns sour when all hell breaks loose leaving Viola filled with anxiety and heartbreak. Goldberg does a phenomenal job. There are also a number of other notable performances. Tichina Arnold plays a sassy and loud mouth daughter, Charlotte, who often butts heads with her successful TV chef and sister Paris, played by Anika Noni Rose.
Fellow troubled siblings Janelle, played by Kimberly Elise, and Lewis, played Mekhi Phifer, are forced to rectify tragic parenting issues with their respective children. The Price family patriarch, Cecil, played by Ving Rhames, rounds out the cast but doesn’t escape the drama. He’s faced with choosing between staying with his wife or shacking up with his pregnant girlfriend.
A Day Late and a Dollar Short delivers beyond reasonable expectations. It’s not often that made-for-TV movies with star-studded casts dazzle audiences. They often fail miserably. The film’s tidy (and unrealistic) ending is its chief flaw.
(DVDs courtesy:
Saqr Entertainment Stores, Doha)