'The Other Woman': movie review

Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann and Kate Upton star as women cheated on by the same man in a cliche-ridden, romance-free rom-com

Leslie Mann, Cameron Diaz and Kate Upton bond over a cheating playboy in "The Other Woman."

The conventional rom-com — you know, the kind that usually ends with an airport proposal — was driven into the ground by too many lazy efforts. But Hollywood loves familiar formulas, so it was inevitable that somebody would find a way to revisit the genre.

Rather than upgrading the much-maligned “chick flick” genre with creativity and wit, the makers of “The Other Woman” have simply repackaged it.

So instead of the rom-com, we now have the “non-com.” The cardboard characters and predictable rhythms remain. But this time, we get all the comic cliches with none of the romance.

Cameron Diaz plays Carly, a high-powered lawyer stunned to learn her new boyfriend, Mark (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), is married. After meeting his wife Kate (Leslie Mann), Carly wants to move swiftly on. But Kate is devastated: She has dedicated her entire life to her husband and their suburban home.

Kate convinces Carly to spy on Mark and find out what other secrets he’s hiding. After they catch him with Amber (supermodel Kate Upton), all three ladies decide to take him down.

We last saw this shamelessly recycled idea in the (lousy) 2006 comedy “John Tucker Must Die,” which was about high school students. It’s hardly an improvement to watch adult women drop everything to fanatically obsess over a sleazy playboy.

Screenwriter Melissa Stack takes the easy way out in every scene, but what’s worse is her disdain for her own characters. Kate is a brainless Stepford wife, Amber is a blank mannequin who exists solely for bikini scenes, and Carly is reduced to tripping over her heels and face-planting into shrubs.

Director Nick Cassavetes should know better. Why is the guy who made “The Notebook” — a guilty pleasure, sure, but an intelligent and heartfelt one — treating his cast and audience with so little respect?

Diaz and Mann work remarkably hard to add some buoyancy to the flat script. But they’re required to mug so broadly that their characters have no connection to any living human being.

In the end, stunning Amber falls in love with Frank — because, ultimately, movies like this are exercises in wish fulfillment. Not what viewers want, but what studio execs wish they’d want. After all, it’s a lot harder to create fresh ideas than to dress up old ones and call them new.

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