The Other Woman

is basically what this movie is about. And the film goes out of its way to make the two female character, played by Portman and Kudrow, seem very dislikable. Kudrow is the ex-wife and is just plain ugly at times with what she says and is a control freak. You don't feel sorry for her that her husband left her for a younger woman. Who would want to listen to her carry on at home. Portman, is the younger woman, Emilia, whom steels her boss, Jack, from Kudrow. She gets pregnant, so he decides to divorce and marry her. Their baby dies 3 days after being born. Then there is the stepson, William, whom seems to set Emilia off. She seems very annoyed by him and always does or say the wrong thing. Emilia also has problems with her father and brings that into her marriage. The way everyone is portrayed in the movie makes you wonder how they ever got married in the first place.

FINAL VERDICT: No one is likable in this. Not worth a viewing.

Don Roos's 'Happy Endings' and 'The Opposite of Sex' are among my favourite movies and his 'Web Therapy' is one of my favourite series. Thus, I was quite excited about 'Love and Other Impossible Pursuits' despite the negative reviews. Sadly this one does not match up even close to any of Roos's previous works. The major fault lies in the writing, especially the characterization. Portman's Emilia is a cardboard of a woman going through the loss of her child and is bitter towards everyone around her. Cohen's Jack is the typical husband who's holding it together and Kudrow's Carolyne is the clichéd bitchy ex-wife. Because of the lack of dimension in character, it's hard to judge the acting.

However, I'd say the actors did the best with what they're given. The best acting moment is the final sequence between Kudrow and Portman (that takes place in Carolyne's office). Here Kudrow, in a wonderfully subtle way, displays layers of emotions and Portman's reaction is good. The other actors don't get much scope except Charlie Tahan who is quite alright.

The movie has a polished look to it. The cinematography is good but the score is very intrusive and adds a feel of melodrama almost like a fluffy TV movie.

I haven't read the book and so I cannot tell what Roos took from the book. But he is a talented writer and filmmaker so hope his next venture come close to the aforementioned examples.

Inevitably seeing this movie brought to mind another with a similar title, "Love And other Drugs", which was released later but I saw first. As well as titles with the same three first words, both films are based on a book (in this case a successful novel by Ayelet Waldman), are scripted by the director (in this instance, Don Roos), have an attractive and young lead actress (in this one, Natalie Portman), and deal with challenging social issues (this time, step-parenting and infant mortality). However, where "..Drugs" was a romantic comedy, "..Impossible Pursuits" has less romance and very little comedy. In fact, at times it is quite harrowing.

It works because of an intelligent script (although the dialogue is sometimes hard to follow) and some fine acting, not just from Portman - who is excellent - but Scott Cohen as her husband, Lisa Kudrow as the ex-wife, and Charlie Tahan as the troubled child of the first marriage. Many films set in New York include scenes in Central Park, but here the location is particularly well used, especially in a silent walk to remember the deaths of the unborn or newly born. The soundtrack too neatly complements the action in a work that is well worth viewing as a contrast to the standard rom-com.

It is also known as 'Love and Other Impossible Pursuits', which is the name of the book the film was adapted. According to me this is a very underrated film. Especially Natalie Portman was never seen before. This film was beautiful because of her. Might have been the same if any other actress who had played that role, but the thing is the character Emilia makes this story great. I would have given any top award the available around the globe for that incredible character display. It should have been recognised, sadly that did not happen because of the filthy film critics.

Feels good watching it. This might not be a biographical film, but surely this is happening around us. The writing was so impressive. How the character Emilia was portrayed is the film's highlight. It was a simple character, that does not mean the life has to be simple as well. She falls in love with a married man and later she get married to him to become a step-mother to his child. That's where the problem arises when her baby dies in her arm, everybody points her for not being cautious with her step-son. This is a big task and how she comes out of it was revealed with lots of small twists and turns in the tale.

Not just Natalie, but all the supporting cast was brilliant, including the husband, the kid and the ex. The story of loss, marriage, taking care a child and other struggles in life. Initially it did not look good with those affairs, but when it got past the half way mark, the rest of the film rebalanced the entire film. I liked how it ended. That final scene was very good. Even if you are an atheist, that end dialogues makes the major difference to favour the film. I haven't read the book, but seems the film was better than the book. Being a film fanatic and failing to recommending it to you would be a mistake. So I recommend it to particularly the grown-ups.

8/10

Love And Other Impossible Pursuits (horribly changed to The Other Woman) is based on a best-seller novel of the same name by Ayelet Waldman.

In the movie, Emilia (Natalie Portman) is a young, happy, beautiful and notorious lawyer that falls in love with Jack (Scott Cohen) the man who left his first wife Carolyn (Lisa Kudrow) to marry Emilia and also give himself some new colors in life. Jack and Carolyn have a young boy, William (Charlie Tahan), which have some difficulties to accept Emilia as a new member of the family and is always influenced by his mother's tough thoughts and her lack of respect for Isabel's death, the child Emilia and Jack lost few days after her birth. Carolyn also doesn't accept the fact that her son will not have the paternal presence anymore but in the other hand can't handle Emilia's efforts to conquer William's appreciation because all her tries fails with unintentional careless attitudes.

The movie hides from the audience when, why or how Isabel died till the last moment to intensify dramatic moments and give time to plot developments, which works but some elements in the book aren't clear in the movie. The movie focuses her tough relationship with her stepson forgetting some of her problems about why she hates so much other places and people that surrounds her. Of course that we know that all her angry and hate are related to her loss, but seems like everything is just a result of her depression and not because all that she once loved remember somehow her child or her intense desires to be a perfect mother and wife with the man she loves deeply. And those are the other impossible pursuits the title talks about.

Don Roos is a great director who deals with the short thin line between human losses and the problems that come along with it, expressing human feelings in its real form never desperate to get tears from the audience with lame dramatic situations. His movies are always simple, linear and easy to understand but honest enough to make us considering how complex are human feelings and the relationship between them. That's how he succeeds with titles like his acclaimed breakthrough The Opposite Of Sex (1998) and the less known but equally good Happy Endings (2005). But here seems that things are sometimes superficial enough as an ordinary drama that succeeds but could give us a little more than is given. When everything seems simple enough suddenly he tries hard more than is concerned like the Freud-ish analysis using Oedipus parallels and relationship transferring, adding nothing solid to the plot more than a few minutes plus of some unnecessary composition.

Natalie Portman is great for sure, apathetic and cold as the character is even when sometimes her character's egocentrism and selfishness seems a little exhaustive. The same can be said about the other actors, specially Don Ross' longtime collaborator Lisa Kudrow, that once more gives some comedic situations to relieve some melodramatic sequences but suddenly is able to transform a funny performance into an absolutely emotional and delicate situation. The example of Kudrow's outstanding ability is obvious when she calls Emilia to explain the truth about Isabel's death. That scene is fantastic in its simplistic form and what give us reasons to watch Don Roos movies from the beginning to the end.

A beautiful movie, sometimes corny but effective in its purpose.