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An Affair to Forget

At the end of "The Other Man", Peter (Liam Neeson) describes his titular rival as "appalling, but also rather wonderful." If only the film could have been one or the other. Either extreme would be preferable to this bland, mediocre mess of a melodrama.

In "The Other Man", Neeson plays a man driven to confront his wife's lover, played by Antonio Banderas. Co-starring Laura Linney (as Peter's wife, Lisa) and helmed by hoity-toity theater director Richard Eyre ("Iris", "Notes on a Scandal"), the film has all the earmarks of a sophisticated psychodrama. Unfortunately, the only mystery in "The Other Man" is why such people would be involved in this schlockfest in the first place.

We first meet Peter and Lisa safely nestled in the arms of connubial bliss. Despite their differences ― she a glamorous shoe designer, he a stoic software CEO ― they've kept their marriage alive some 20-odd years. Between the occasional bickering about their daughter's new boyfriend or Lisa's business trips to Milan, the couple seem the very picture of domestic felicity. That is, until Lisa unexpectedly exits the picture.

While struggling to deal with the absence of his wife, Peter stumbles upon evidence that his wife might have been having an affair. Much to the consternation of his estranged daughter, Abigail (the lovely but perpetually gasping Romola Garai), Peter becomes obsessed with tracking down and confronting ― and possibly killing (dun dun dun...) ― Lisa's lover.

After tedious sequences of Peter ineptly trying to hack into his wife's laptop (this man is supposed to be a computer expert, no?), the trail eventually leads to Ralph (Banderas), a smooth-talking, sophisticated man-about-town living in ― you guessed it ― Milan. Peter follows Ralph into a chess club and so begins their not-so-subtle battle of wits, literally over a chess board. As they play, Peter struggles between his desire to destroy Ralph and his curiosity. What did his beloved wife see in this man? From his slicked back hair to his Gucci loafers, Ralph is every inch the European lothario ― and the very opposite of Peter. Pretentious and indiscreet, Ralph (pronounced "Rafe") regales the stranger with stories of his conquests, including a woman who bears a striking resemblance to Lisa. But is he truly what he seems?

As they play and talk and play and talk, it becomes clear that neither the audience, nor the actors, much care any longer about the game. Each weak "twist" in the story seems to come as an afterthought, with the final twist a complete anti-climax. In the end, "The Other Man" feels like a complete waste of time and talent. The best that can be said is that the cast is pleasant to look at, if not to listen to. Neeson clenches his square jaw and muddles through the ham-fisted dialogue and crocodile tears. Linney bears her breasts, but not much in the way of emotional resonance. It's refreshing to see Garai out of the "corset" roles she usually inhabits, but Abigail is an annoying, needy character and easily the least likeable in a bunch of unlikeable people. Of the entire cast, Banderas is the only one who seems to have a little fun with his role of the suave seducer. The rest seem to be waiting around for The Other Film they should have made.