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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.

Natalie Portman delivers an astonishing character study as Emilia Greenleaf a woman who has, in her own words, broken one marriage, and seems unable to stop herself breaking her own following the death of her three day old baby. We see her demise through her relationships with William (Tahan), her husband Jack (Cohen), and his first wife Carolyn (Kudrow). When Portman is on screen with William the film seems to move in a believable direction and yet with Jack and with Carolyn, alone or together something seems not quite as understandably real.

At first I wanted to blame a lack of chemistry between Portman and Cohen and yet there are tender moments seemingly nullifying my questions about their relationship. Charlie Tahan is excellent throughout and so I am left with a question mark against the casting of Jack and Carolyn, or, perhaps, the screenplay involving them. Portman's character is simply played out as a determined and privileged young woman who cannot cope with being denied what she really wants and needs above all else - to be seen as the person she thinks she is and not the woman she really is. Her defensiveness is seen in many of the scenes Portman delivers which is why I consider her performance as astonishingly accurate and I just wish the flaws elsewhere could have been better handled.

Although there is a rewarding end to this film, a catharsis if you wish it to be one, it still leaves a feeling that you have watched an unfinished work, one which could and should have delivered so much more from the characters around Emilia. Perhaps, at heart, the film cannot get beyond a feeling of superficiality that surrounds some of the plot, which is a pity because it could have been so much better.

Natalie Portman plays Emilia, the other woman. Emilia had an affair with her boss, Jack. Jack divorced his wife to marry Emilia. Everybody did not live happily ever after. From the moment we first meet her it is obvious Emilia is struggling. There is tension in her marriage, her efforts to be a stepmother to Jack's son are failing miserably. And there is an undercurrent of sadness always lingering, a horrible tragedy having occurred, a tragedy which haunts Emilia. The woman is a wreck, her life is a sad shambles. And she's not getting much sympathy. Jack's first wife Carolyn, not without reason, despises Emilia and does everything she can to make the life of the woman who replaced her completely miserable. Carolyn poisons her son, William, against Emilia. William has no respect for Emilia and acts out against his stepmother in rather cruel ways. All the mothers of William's classmates treat Emilia with utter disdain, scorning her as a home wrecker. Jack is the only person Emilia has to turn to but even that relationship is strained. It's a desperately sad situation yet many people would say Emilia is getting exactly what she deserves.

Emilia certainly is not a perfect person by any means. She has gone down some morally deficient paths. And with her cold personality she's a very hard person to warm up to. But as the story unfolds, flashing back to happier times and then to desperately sad times before catching up with the present, you can see where that coldness might come from. This is a woman who has been emotionally wounded in the worst possible way and who carries around an unbearably burdensome guilt. Yes, she made mistakes but she is now doing the best she can to put things right. She could use a little help but that help is very hard to come by. A woman who breaks up a family is not the most sympathetic of characters and that is a bit of a problem for this movie. Because for the movie to work you really have to sympathize with, and pull for, Emilia. And at times that is very hard to do.

Portman does a reasonably good job in the starring role. The story requires Emilia to be cold and often unpleasant. Perhaps Portman made Emilia just a little bit too cold for the movie's good. Lisa Kudrow, playing Carolyn, holds nothing back. If Emilia is somewhat cold Carolyn is the absolute ice queen. If anything makes you sympathize with Emilia it is the way Carolyn berates her at every opportunity. Charlie Tahan, playing young William, seems to grow into his role as the movie progresses. At first William comes across like a total brat but the kid has been put in a tough spot. It seems he wants to hurt Emilia but maybe he's just a kid, maybe he doesn't even realize the impact of his words and actions. As the relationship between William and Emilia evolves Tahan and Portman have some nice moments together. And in a movie filled with so much hurt we really need some nice moments. You would think the role of Jack would be vitally important, and it probably should be. But Scott Cohen does not make much of an impression in that role. A few other characters pop up with their own accompanying subplots, most notably Emilia's parents. But the movie is really all about Emilia, all that she has to deal with and her struggles to handle it all. In the end it does not come together perfectly. Things get a little melodramatic and the movie rushes through an awkward ending which doesn't really work. However there are enough good things here to make The Other Woman worth seeing. The story isn't perfect, the characters are flawed but the movie still holds your attention. Not a great movie by any means but reasonably compelling and entertaining.

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.

"The Other Woman" is not just about a woman who happens to be "the other woman". In every broken relationship, each woman is the other woman to the other. The film centers around Emilia (Natalie Portman) the young second wife of Jack (Scott Cohen). Jack's son William by his first wife (Lisa Kudrow) is the linchpin that ties both sides of the dysfunctional "family" together.

Complicating things are Emilia's feelings toward her father, who was unfaithful to her mother years ago, causing the breakup of their marriage. Also, Emilia and Jack's daughter had died in infancy.

There is plenty of guilt and blame to go around in this drama where everyone struggles with his own demons. The early part of the film did not resonate with me much, but the story gets stronger as it develops. By the end, I found it very rewarding.

It's a rather bleak story, where--true to life--people tend to lash out rather than seek an objective view of their own baggage. But it is worth watching.

The acting is fine. Lisa Kudrow's performance stands out for me. Overall, this is a solid film that develops rather slowly, but feels true to life.

THE OTHER WOMAN – CATCH IT ( B ) "Step Mom" & "The Rabbit Hole" meets "The Other Woman". I think Step Mom is the best movie about the other woman and last year Rabbit Hole has emerged as the best movie ever about the Child Loss. In "The Other Woman" we see very nice amalgamation of both movies, though I'm not suggesting it's a copy of those movies because besides the basic story line nothing is as it was in those two movies. Natalie Portman plays The Other Woman, who breaks a marriage, becomes a step mom and loss her first child in a year. Portraying all these three paces on the screen can be a difficult task but Natalie Portman does it with so ease that it's truly commendable. Most of the times the Heroin has always been shown right but here we see that she is flawed and sometimes it's really hard for her to accept where she is wrong. Natalie as lover, then wife, step mother and as grieving mother is simply amazing. On one side where the screenplay could have been tighten, Natalie's performance and chemistry with little kid "Charlie Tahan" keeps us engaging. Charlie Tahan is amazing as he was in "Charlie St.Cloud". Scott Cohen was good as an actor but somehow he lacked the charisma in front of Natalie Portman. Lisa Kudrow did well as always. Overall, good family movie with lots of emotions and drama. If you love Natalie Portman, watch it! You won't be disappointed.

'THE OTHER WOMAN': Three Stars (Out of Five)

Natalie Portman gives another award worthy performance in this gloomy and depressing tearjerker. Portman plays 'the other woman' of the title, a young woman who has an affair with her boss, a married man and father, and becomes pregnant. She loses the child and then has to cope with the tragedy as well as the damage she's done to the other family. It's based on a book titled 'Love and Other Impossible Pursuits' by Ayelet Waldman. The film is written and directed by Don Roos (who also performed both duties on such films as 'THE OPPOSITE OF SEX', 'BOUNCE' and 'HAPPY ENDINGS'). Portman's performance is the highlight of the film, which is well made to a certain extent but the material is far too dark and somewhat morally depraved.

Portman plays Emilia Greenleaf, a young lawyer who falls for her boss Jack Woolf (Scott Cohen). Jack is married with a son named William (Charlie Tahan) but this doesn't prevent the two from having an affair. Jack tells Emilia he no longer loves his wife Carolyne (Lisa Kudrow) but he's unwilling to leave her, until Emilia becomes pregnant. The two start a new life together but their baby dies from SIDS just three days after it's born. Carolyne is furious with Emilia for wreaking her happy home and turns William against her as well, which only makes things harder on Emilia.

The movie is pretty bold for making a cheating mistress it's heroine but this is also it's biggest downfall. As much as the film tries to make you sympathize with Emilia her actions throughout are just a little too unforgivable. Portman's performance is outstanding and she does make a great troubled and flawed central character but the movie's intent of trying to force her on the viewer as the hero just doesn't work. The subject matter is also far too depressing and played out with very little hope or happiness. It's definitely a hard film to watch, with no real likable characters to root for, but it is believable and Portman's acting is once again something to watch in awe.

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"The Other Woman" or "Love and Other Impossible Pursuits" as it is called, is labeled as a comedy and drama? Comedy? Are you kidding me? The movie is pretty far from being funny. A drama, yes. But comedy? No way...

The story told in the movie is about Emilia having to come to terms with being the stepmother to William, a rather unique child. But at the same time she is struggling with the trauma of having lost her child, a rocky marriage to Jack and having to take the verbal beatings of his ex-wife Carolyne. The movie deals with a lot of good subjects, matters that are close to heart and real life. However, sadly enough, it never really fully delves into these matters, it is just superficially touched. And that is a terrible shame, because the movie had potential to become a very touchy and heartfelt movie. Instead it just came out as a superficial, shallow movie that wanted too much but delivered too little.

As for the cast in the movie, well they had some really good names on the list, lots of good actors and actresses. Natalie Portman portrays Emilia in a very good way, and you do buy into her performance, except for the crying scenes, they were just not sinking in, they didn't work at all. Lisa Kudrow did a good job as Carolyne (Jack's ex-wife), however, Kudrow is still stuck with the Phoebe Buffay image, so it was casting a big shadow over her, unfortunately. Charlie Tahan did a marvelous job in portraying the troubled boy William. And he was perhaps the most memorable of all in the movie.

This movie had potential to be great, but it failed to deliver, and that was a shame. When the movie was over, I was left with a thought saying "was that really it?". I was disappointed in how the movie dealt with the deep matters that were part of the storyline. And as such, I am only rating the movie a 4 out of 10. The superficial nature of the movie drags it way down, but the solid performances of the cast manages to make the movie bearable to sit through.

Sadly, this movie was not all it could have been...

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.

First, I really liked this movie. It held my attention, it was a good human drama and yet it never seemed overly melodramatic - all the characters seemed tragic to a degree, but nevertheless all were grounded in reality; they were believable and for the most part the situations they found themselves in were believable. Infidelity, mixed families, grief, unforgiveness and bitterness - all believable. Second, I really like Natalie Portman. I've liked her from the first time I saw her in "Where The Heart Is," I've liked most of what I've seen her in since, and I think she was a deserving winner of the Oscar for Best Actress in "Black Swan." I liked her performance in this movie. As Emilia Greenleaf, her character was complex and emotionally troubled and she played it beautifully. Watching Emilia trying to develop a relationship with her new stepson William (Charlie Tahan) was almost painful at times - as it was undoubtedly supposed to be. Watching her deal with grief and guilt over the death of her own daughter at the age of just 3 days was sad.

For all that, the movie was weakened by two things. As much as I liked Natalie Portman's performance and could understand Emilia's pain, I could never find myself developing any real sympathy for her. To mention the other title by which the movie is known, Emilia was the quintessential "other woman." She begins work at a lawfirm as a young lawyer, spies a more senior partner and decides she wants him - the fact that he's married with a son doesn't seem to bother her at all. She goes out and gets what she wants. I'm not letting Jack (the lawyer she falls for, played by Scott Cohen) off the hook. He decided to give up on his marriage to Carolyn (who was played by Lisa Kudrow, and this was a different sort of character for Kudrow - very hard and bitter and angry, and she pulled it off well.) But still, my sense all through the movie was that there was an attempt to pull out feelings of sympathy for Emilia. Yes, lots of bad things had happened in her life. But I never felt the sympathy. Lack of sympathy for the main character was the first problem here. The second problem was that the last 20 minutes or so turned unbelievably sappy. After everything that had happened, everything seemed to work out far too easily, all the relationships seemed healed, everybody seemed to walk away happy after all the bitterness that had characterized the movie up to that point. That was problematic, and frankly took away somewhat from the emotional power of the movie - a movie that was really about unresolved anger and grief - by turning it into a feel-good message at the end.

Still, weaknesses aside, it's well worth watching for another winning performance by Natalie Portman. (7/10)

I just watched this movie at the On Demand. It was an impulse buy after watching Black Swan, which I've seen probably ten times already, at least 4 times in theaters. The movie was okay. It had a good storyline, and a great cast. I love Natalie Portman, but found it weird that Lisa Kudrow was in the movie.

Without spoiling the film (I would call this a "film" not a "movie,") I think this shows Natalie Portman's great range as an actress. From this, to No Strings Attached, to Hesher (which I saw when it was at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010), to Black Swan (not to mention her early day performances in films like The Professional). You'll have to see it for yourself (not my favorite film of all time but only because it makes me sad), but a film that makes you think about the complexities of life.

I really liked the acting in this movie, Natalie Portman is really natural in this role, Scott Cohen and the young Charlie Tahan were very good too, and don't forget me to mention Lisa Kudrow she was great as well, even though she didn't have a lot of screen time, I liked the story and I didn't find the pace of the movie to be dragging, it was a very good film overall. Like I said before Natile Portman was great and she is just way to beautiful to see on screen, and she is one of my favorite actresses, the movie had me going until the end and it was just a well-done drama movie. I give " The Other Woman" a 7 out of 10 Stars.

Falsely advertised as a dramedy centering on the relationship between a woman and her stepson, director Don Roos has instead awkwardly mixed genres and themes confusingly, without ever getting to the point.

Nathalie Portman is stunningly beautiful but rings false as a lawyer/grieving mother. There is absolutely no chemistry with Scott Cohen, who is bland to the point of being forgettable. Most of the the actors are mailing their performances with the exception of the kid, Charlie Tahan, who is a nice surprise.

But what this film lacks most of all is a strong story. Instead, we are subjected to what looks like an amalgam of depressing vignettes from the upper middle class in America. On top of being confusing and without purpose, at no point whatsoever can you sympathize with any of the characters. Even the child is obnoxious and unlikable in any way. There are actually few comedy bit and they all fail to even make you smile.

This makes for a film that is devoid of artistic merit and entertainment value. I'll know to avoid Don Roos' work from now on....

unlike the comment i've just read through, i don't see this movie is trying to make Emilia (natalie Portman) as any kind of hero. Rather, I see how this movie portraits how contradictory life is, got married with someone who's changed over time and the sparks are not there anymore, seeing a man who you fall in love in first sight but he's married, grow up in a broken family angry with the irresponsible dad but turned out everyone forgive him for nothing, giving birth to a baby but it dies in 3 days, have to be step-mother dealing with a "son" that's not yours, all these make Emilia lost, she started pissing off people, from strangers to her husband, she did try fixing all those from time to time but either she did it the wrong way or it just so happened that things are too complicated to straighten out, life's just too complicated. at the end everyone around her cannot put up with her anymore, not even her husband...

and probably all she's done was due to that at the bottom the heart there was a knot, a thing that she couldn't let go couldn't forgive herself, until Carolyne told her no, u didn't do it, it wasn't your fault.

after then, she changed, but only to find that the world is not like the same, no matter what she does things done are irreversible, and no matter how u apologize or make your talk the ones who was once closest to u can simply turn their back to u giving u an answer "no, i cannot do it", and this is a very true portrait of life, and it touches me.

to me, i don't see any ethical problem or anythg like such in the movie, after all it's not uncommon to see more hysterical stuff happening around us in this world this story is just about life and how tiny and complicated it can be to every of us.

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.

This film is about a young woman who loses her newborn daughter after she gets married to a divorced lawyer.

"Love and Other Impossible Pursuits" is a beautiful and sensitive film. It depicts the psychological states of the main characters so well. From the grieving Emilia, hysterical and jealous Carolyne, the oppositional and confused William, and the stressed out Jack who is stuck in the middle. Natalie Portman plays Emilia, whose psychological state changes dramatically throughout the film. She carries her character well, as she effortlessly enact the emotional roller-coaster. The plot is engaging, interesting and human. The only problem I have is the title, "Love and Other Impossible Pursuits" sounds like a romantic comedy, which it is definitely not one; while the other title "The Other Woman" does not portray fully what the film is about either.