Sayang Wayang: The Other Man (2008)

Wednesday, 15 February 2012

The Other Man (2008)

"Nice shoes. Wanna fuck?"

At a glance:

Confusin and superfluous British-American project, starrin an embarrassment of stars and directed by Richard Eyre, the fella who did Notes On A Scandal (2006) and Iris (2001). It appears to be marketed as a drama about a man (Liam Neeson) who discovers that his wife (Laura Linney) has cheated on him with some Latin lover (Antonio Banderas) and proceeds to track him down despite desperate pleas from his daughter (Romola Garai) not to. Where o where did it all go wrong?

Bad news on the doorstep:

Firstly, this is a story that was simply too flimsy and unspectacular for a feature film, especially with such a decorated cast. Then there's the twist, which may or may not have been intended as a twist because the giveaway is all over its marketin literature e.g. DVD covers. The uneven direction and the jumpy, abrupt scenes lead us to believe that old Eyre here didn't really know what he wanted to achieve. It may have just suffered from an unrefined script that was intended to tell a much better story. Half-way through, you'd wish this would just turn into Taken 2 and Liam Neeson would just start kickin everybody's ass to spare us the tedium.

Perennial wonderment:

Liam Neeson has a long history of bein a troubled married man in his movies, eh. He was supposed to be a cheatin husband in Chloe (2009) and then a husband whose wife suddenly denies even knowin him in Unknown (2011). In Clash Of The Titans (2010) he played the naughty Zeus who fornicated with humans and most recently in The Grey (2012) his wife either died on him or left him. Sadly though, in real life, his wife Natasha Richardson was killed in a skiin accident in March 2009.

Reminds me of:

Anne Fontaine's Nathalie... (2003) starrin Emmanuelle Béart but that was a good film.
Most memorable line:
"I can't decide which is worse - to find out that you're different with another man or that you're the same!"

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

Wasted all these actors. Give it a miss. ★★
Trailer for the curious:

Bonus material:
Here's a sequence from the movie that chronicles the sort of experience I believe every man should go through at some point in their lives - to discover on the Internet that one's lover is a big cheat.