L'ombra del sospetto

Skipping through reviews before watching this film, I nearly decided to give it a miss. But I found out it was a miss for those negative reviewers who didn't get it. It's a hit, for me anyway.

It's gutsy, deals with real emotions colouring them in hither and thither as the scenes flick by in a non linear time line. That may sound like it's complex - it isn't. You are taken on a journey focusing on Peter, his wife being the essential background to the story, with his wife's lover the foil on which they both tread.

If you're looking for a stereotypical Hollywood scorned husband movie, move along, you'll find no joy here. This is real life in content, pace and dialogue. It's not boring, its not slow and it is captivating. I dare any man who has been cheated on by the love of their life not to be deeply moved by this film. The same probably goes for women. As the story unfolds, there's another group of people that will be moved, and that's for you to discover.

The ending is how it should be given the subject matter - some level of completion. And there's plenty to talk about afterwards. I'd love to say more but that would be giving away too much.

Great acting by all, though Liam Neeson has, and holds firmly, the centre stage.

I give this a low end of 9/10 if that's possible. Enjoy!

Liam Neeson plays Peter, the husband of a famous shoe designer named Lisa(Laura Linney). After some suspicions Peter realizes that his wife hasn't been faithful and when he finds the address of Ralf(Antonio Banderas), the man his wife cheated on him with, he travels to Italy to confront him. When I saw the trailer for The Other Man, I immediately thought the film had a great premise; a man finds out that his wife has been cheating on him and then he tries to track down this man and execute some kind of revenge. That is what you get from the trailer, however, the trailer is incredibly misleading, the story doesn't pan out like that. Not even close. But what really ruined this movie for me, was the direction. Most of the scenes seemed glued together. You're watching a scene and all of a sudden you're watching something completely different and you're left wondering if you missed the last 10 minutes of the film. The reason why the film is like that, is because the director introduced a twist near the end but, until that moment, nothing makes sense, and when the reveal finally comes, it's a terrible letdown. This premise and cast on someone's else hands could have been something great. Unfortunately, all Richard Eyre's was able to do, was a boring and poorly executed movie.

5/10

A bit of an unwieldy film. This one came out around the same time as TAKEN, and like that film it sees Liam Neeson traipsing around Europe in a bit to reunite his family. However, this isn't an action film at all, but rather an exploration of adultery and the effect it can have on people's lives.

It's hard to work out the target audience. The threat of impending violence keeps things moving along at one stage, as does the mystery surrounding Neeson's wife's secrecy. But it's not a thriller at all, and in fact it's difficult to pigeonhole. Really it's more of an excuse to ruminate on love, jealousy, rivalry and more.

It's also one of those twist films, in which plotting plays a major part. I was torn between being slightly bored and fairly intrigued. Neeson is good, if not great, but Antonio Banderas bags the best role and is a delight. Laura Linney and Romola Garai provide strong support.

Looking at the cast of "The Other Man" you could consider in buying this film: Liam Nesson, Antonio Banderas, Laura Linney and Romola Garai. The movie delivers? Yes. All that much? No. And if you consider that this was directed by Richard Eyre who directed great ensemble casts in "Iris" and "Notes on a Scandal" there are things that makes of "The Other Man" an inferior film than this two examples.

Neeson plays Peter, a man married with a beautiful wife (Linney), that discover that she hides from him a long affair with Ralph (pronunced Rafe, played by Banderas). What Peter does? Tracks down this man in Italy and tries to see who he really is and what his wife saw in that men. His first idea is to kill this guy but he's always reluctant, so he keeps on playing games with his guy who seems to love Peter's wife very much.

The whole drama pretending to be a thriller goes well, it makes the story interesting until the ending which is quite disappointing and a little bit unexpected. But if you think I can buy the idea that these two guys reveal part of their lives to each other during chess games matches, well I did not buy it. And if they were drunk maybe but that was not the case. Two unknown figures sharing their romantic passages of their lives (with the same woman) is something unbelievable (or perhaps it's just me who likes to play the mysterious guy in front of other people so it's very difficult to make me really share something of this kind of nature). This scenes were great, interesting dialog, except for some angered reaction of Neeson throwing the pieces away after losing a match.

It's a very psychological work about how one can deal with adultery, different reactions might come from the audience, it's very interesting the way Peter does that, changing his persona all the way through this chase after his wife's lover. It's a great material for passionate people who can't forget a betrayal and feel a need to do something about it. This film will make that kind of people think again just like Peter changed his mind in the course of the story.

The acting is decent, the cast is at their best considering the material they were giving. More complexity, more realism and more thrilling moments instead of some bits here and there would make this film better. 7/10

In Cambridge, the software engineer Peter (Liam Neeson) and the shoe designer Lisa (Laura Linney) are successful in their careers and have been happily married for twenty-five years. They have an adult daughter, Abigail (Romola Garai), and Lisa frequently travels to Milano to do business with the Gianni & Gianni Company. When Lisa is gone, Peter finds a message in her cellular and decides to snoop her e-mails and discovers in a secret folder named Love that she had a lover, Ralph (Antonio Banderas). Peter travels to Milano and stalks Ralph; he finds that the man plays chest in a bar. Peter gets close to Ralph that tells his relationship with Lisa without knowing that he is her husband.

"The Other Man" is an engaging romance about adultery and triangle of love among the husband, the wife and her lover. The story is supported by the excellent Liam Neeson, Laura Linney and Antonio Banderas but unfortunately the suspenseful screenplay has a disappointing conclusion. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Amante" ("The Lover")