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'The Other Woman' review

A pre-'Black Swan' Natalie Portman in another dark role

By Geoff Berkshire

Metromix
January 12, 2011

Critic's Rating:

Natalie Portman and Charlie Tahan (Credit: IFC)

The Other Woman

Running time:: 119 minutes

Rated:: R

Cast:

Natalie Portman -

Emilia Greenleaf

Lisa Kudrow -

Carolyn

Lauren Ambrose -

Mindy

Anthony Rapp -

Simon

Charlie Tahan -

William

See full cast

Director:: Don Roos

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["The Other Woman" premiered at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival under the title "Love and Other Impossible Pursuits." In 2010, Natalie Portman would return to the festival with her Oscar-bait role in "Black Swan." The success of "Swan" helped spur a small release for this lesser heralded film. The following is an excerpt from Metromix's coverage of the 2009 Toronto festival.]

The messy narrative of "The Other Woman" unfolds with a fearless fighting spirit, making it a good match for damaged heroine Emilia (Natalie Portman).

Emilia is the second wife of a successful lawyer (Scott Cohen). They recently lost their baby and that seems to be one of the many reasons she's so dismissive of her stepson (Charlie Tahan), despite playing a major role in destroying his parents' marriage. Emilia's defense mechanism of choice is sarcasm, which she spews at anyone and everyone—the better to keep her painful emotions buried until they spill to the surface in consciously or unconsciously hurtful acts. In other words, her story is no sunny rom-com.

Director Don Roos made a smashing debut with the caustic, witty relationship comedy “The Opposite of Sex.” Since then he’s stumbled with two movies that tried to subvert the status quo but didn't entirely succeed: “Bounce” and “Happy Endings.” “Impossible Pursuits” falls closer to those, and gives Portman a tricky role that impatient audiences could easily reject as too annoying to care about. But just because there are a few bumps along the way, doesn’t mean the ride isn't worth taking.