The Other Woman - DVD

Film: Emilia Greenleaf's (Natalie Portman) life seems to be going perfectly. After successfully graduating from Harvard, she immediately found a job at a prestigious New York law firm, where she also immediately fell in love with her boss Jack (Scott Cohen), who unceremoniously leaves his wife Carolyne (Lisa Kudrow) for her. After the wedding, the two can be happy about the birth of their daughter Isabel. But the joy does not last long. After only three days the baby dies and the life of the young couple gets out of balance. While Emilia desperately tries to find her way back to normality and make friends with Jack's son William (Charly Tahan), Jack's increasing emotional coldness and Carolyne's psychic attacks take their toll on her. But Emilia is not yet ready to give up on her marriage.

The Other Woman is the film adaptation of Ayelet Waldman's acclaimed novel Heaven So Far. As with his alcoholic drama Bounce, starring Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow, director and screenwriter Don Roos again wraps a story inherently filled with great sadness in a very beautiful and not-too-depressing guise. Sure, the drama still isn't really light fare, if only because of its subject matter, and except for a few pleasantly uplifting moments, the film is also far from what can generally be called feel-good cinema. However, Roos repeatedly lightens the proceedings with scenes laced with very subtle humour, thereby avoiding smothering the viewer with too much gloom.

Besides the moving story, which is sometimes told in flashbacks, and the engaging camerawork, which shows New York at its more beautiful best, it is the actors in particular who make The Other Woman so worth watching. Natalie Portman proves that she can act award-worthy even without ballet shoes. Especially in a very touching scene towards the end of the film, which Portman completes together with Lisa Kudrow, who plays wonderfully against her Friends image, the strength of the actors is felt in a very intense way.

The Other Woman is further proof that the quality of a film can long since no longer be measured by whether or not it makes it to the cinema. A well-acted, beautifully filmed and sensitively told drama that draws great strength precisely from its dramaturgical restraint. Worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: Especially in the beautiful shots of New York, the clean picture can score with warm colors and its good overall sharpness. Only in the representation of smaller details, especially in darker scenes, slight weaknesses can be discerned. The sound remains unspectacular according to the genre and is limited to the dialogue and music, whereby the English soundtrack is quieter, but also mixed a bit more harmonious than the somewhat front-heavy German sound.

Extras: Apart from the original trailer and a trailer show from the provider, there is unfortunately no bonus material whatsoever.

Conclusion: The Other Woman is a superbly acted drama that proves Natalie Portman didn't get her Oscar for nothing. No light fare, for lovers of soulful American dramas but a real tip. The DVD is technically well done, only the lack of bonus material is a small point deduction. Nevertheless, the bottom line is still a: Recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp