We haven't gone to a lot of movies lately. A large part of the reason why is that we've just not been terribly excited about our choices. This week, we decided to get back in the habit, and went to see The Other Woman - a comedy starring Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann, and Kate Upton. After seeing the trailer, I wasn't expecting much. Unfortunately, I wasn't disappointed.
Diaz plays Carly Whitten, a lawyer who unwittingly has an affair with Kate's (Leslie Mann) husband. The two become friends, and, while performing a bit of amateur spying, discover another mistress, Amber (Kate Upton). There are some funny bits in the movie - most of them due to Mann's skills as a comedic actress, but the movie falls short of being laugh-out-loud funny. The women bond over their shared heartbreak, but this is no "relationship" movie. What you're left with is a movie that feels like it should be a screwball comedy, but just isn't very funny. Then you start to think it might be a touching story, but you really can't relate to the characters, so it just doesn't reach you.
Some of the problem is that, at 109 minutes, it's at least 15 minutes longer than it should be. I suspect they had to add meaningless minutes in order to have time to show Upton jogging in her bikini (admittedly an incredible visual), as well as show Diaz in all manner of attire. The bigger problem, however, lies in the fact that the audience just can't connect with the characters. Diaz is a beautiful woman, but there's no depth to her character - in fact, she comes off as cold, even after befriending Kate. Upton is just there for show - she couldn't be more wooden if she were carved from oak. Mann is actually quite good - her character is likable, vulnerable, and a bit manic. Probably because there's more depth there, she's easily the most attractive of the three women - I found myself thinking, "What in the world is wrong with this guy - why would he leave home at night to see these other two bimbos?"
Fortunately, after we came home that night, I switched on the TV and happened to catch the last half hour of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (I watched the first half the next night). This 1967 classic, starring Spencer Tracy (in his last movie role), Katherine Hepburn, and Sidney Poitier, has everything the other movie lacks - real, three dimensional characters, clever writing, humor, and drama. Tracy, as Matt Drayton, is perfect. A life-long liberal, he's forced to live up to his rhetoric when his daughter brings home her African-American fiance. There's plenty of drama in his journey to a decision, but it's pretty funny, too. Hepburn is, well, Katherine Hepburn - fiery, outspoken, funny - but also vulnerable and afraid. It's not a perfect movie - Poitier's character is a little too perfect to be true - but most of those faults can be traced to it's era. In 1967, a black man would have to be nearly perfect to meet most parent's approval, and that's kind of the whole point of the story - the ONLY possible reason to reject him would be based on the color of his skin. Of course, in the end, Matt makes the right decision, and everything works out as it should. All in all, if you're tempted to go see the new Cameron Diaz movie, save the time and money and rent this film - even after seeing it at least a dozen times, I can't stop watching.
Oh, one more thing. At one point, Tracy asks Poitier if he plans to have kids, and what Tracy's daughter thinks about it. Poitier says, "Oh, she's wildly unrealistic, as you might imagine. She thinks they'll all be perfect, and that all of them will grow up to be president of the United States." I guess they were a little too late - by 1967 our first African-American president was six years old, and about to move to Indonesia.
"A little too late." I like that, Gregg. It would have been hard to imagine, in 1967, that Guess Who's Coming to Dinner would be too late to produce our first African-American or mixed-race president. I certainly didn't imagine it back then.
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