Some Other Woman: Confusing Film Maybe Needed Some Other Writer
It begins as a cheesy psychological thriller about Eve (Amanda Crew), a woman who has moved to a tropical island because of her husband’s work. Far from home and desperate to have a child, she starts to believe she’s slowly being replaced in her own life by another woman (Ashley Greene).
To add to the creepiness, the other woman sort of looks like her.
Is our protagonist unhinged? Is there something supernatural going on? Is her husband (Tom Felton) the mastermind of some diabolical plot?
All good questions, and all possibilities, given the hints sprinkled here and there in the story.
But then the whole process reverses, and the mysterious other woman in turn feels she’s being replaced by the original woman. As both women lay claim to the same man as their husband, you can be sure there’s a fight to the finish between them, with plenty of struggling underwater and such.
And then there’s an odd finale involving a lengthy and unexpected voice-over about a woman finding the life she always wanted, and how that life can be pursued even though the world says otherwise.
A viewer is left with many questions. For example, “What the hell.”
So, is this a reincarnation story? Is it a fable about how changing the exterior details can’t fix what’s fundamentally wrong in any relationship?
Is it a badly written faux feminist tale about the-choices-women-make-or-don’t-make-and-the-pressure-to-have-children-when-what-you-really-always-wanted-to-be-was-a-low-level-chanteuse-in-your-podunk-home-town-and-perform-in-the-kind-of objectifying-outfit-and-scarlet-lipstick-that-attracts-the-exact-same-male-gaze-you’re-intent-upon-avoiding?
Who’s to say?
The only thing for sure here is that constant viewer was obliged to watch the last part of Some Other Woman all over again in a desperate attempt to understand what the movie is actually about.
Alas, no dice.
CLICK HERE to read Bonnie Laufer’s interview with Amanda Crew.
Some Other Woman. Directed by Joel David Moore. Written by Yuri Baranovsky, Angela Gulner, Josh Long. Starring Ashley Greene, Tom Felton, and Amanda Crew. In theatres January 12.