The Other Woman

Director Don Roos and Natalie Portman join forces in this adaptation of Ayelet Waldman's novel Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, offering a fresh take on the “other woman” melodrama. The story starts after an affair and pregnancy leads to the marriage between two well-heeled New Yorkers, but there's no happily ever after for legal associate Emilia (Portman) and attorney Jack (Scott Cohen) because their baby succumbed to sudden infant death syndrome. Now their lives revolve around Jack's sensitive eight-year-old son William (Charlie Tahan), who lives with Jack's chilly ex-wife Carolyn (Lisa Kudrow). Emilia has trouble dealing with her loss, while William can't understand her inability to move on. Emilia struggles to connect with the boy but every time she thinks she's made a breakthrough, something goes wrong, leading William to declare, "You're not sophisticated like me and my Mom." Fortunately, Emilia has her mother (Debra Monk), sister (Elizabeth Marvel), and friends (Lauren Ambrose and Anthony Rapp) for support, although they're no match for Carolyn, whose deep resentment of “other woman” Emilia would be more understandable if she wasn't so utterly unlikable (Carolyn does display a flicker of humanity towards the end). Ultimately, this is Portman's show, and she's very good at depicting the various stages of Emilia's grief, particularly in her scenes with Tahan. A strong optional purchase. (K. Fennessy)