Its plotting leans more toward silly, soap opera-ish machinations, and while Banderas is as charming as ever, there are a couple of crucial bits of miscasting.
Comment
10/29/09
The Other Man (2009)
18
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:33
Fresh:6
Rotten:27
Average Rating:4.1/10
Consensus: Despite the best efforts of a talented cast, The Other Man is talky, witless, and tension-free.
Synopsis: Based on a short story by Bernhard Schlink, The Other Man is a love story about a man (Liam Neeson) who discovers that his wife (Laura Linney) has been involved with another man (Antonio Banderas).... [More]
Starring: Liam Neeson, Antonio Banderas, Laura Linney, Romola Garai
Director: Richard Eyre
Reviews for The Other Man
Neeson, in particular, has to rumble through the movie behaving in a way consistent with the ending and comes off as far over the top in the process.
10/07/09
A turgid tale of adultery among the rich and boring.
09/29/09
The result is B-grade cheese. The only genuine mystery, for me, is why such a fine cast signed on for such a witless movie.
09/25/09
Everyone seems as if they're going through the motions.
09/25/09
It was directed by British theater director Richard Eyre, who knows how to line up the shots but not how to make us feel the compulsive hunger that drives Peter to the brink of a very tidy, stiff-upper-lip breakdown.
09/25/09
Before long, the characters, which director Richard Eyre adapted from a Bernhard Schlink short story, cease to be people and start to become devices.
09/25/09
Despite the gimlet eye of Richard Eyre, former director of England’s Royal National Theatre, and the top-echelon talents of an impressive cast, a dreary, disabled disaster called The Other Man drops dead at the starting gate.
09/23/09
Despite the cast, which is very good, you never feel like they’re really taking on a life of their own.
09/15/09
It owes its air of mystery to a piece of narrative trickery that’s both obnoxiously manipulative and insultingly obvious.
09/15/09
A skewed psychological thriller revolving around the many forms of betrayal.
09/14/09
A contrived, poorly crafted, sophomoric and bland thriller that can't even be saved by its stellar cast.
09/12/09
Stagy to a fault, and painfully uneventful, "The Other Man" suffocates from the pitiable writing at hand.
09/12/09
Near the end, Peter issues this verdict on his romantic rival, “Appalling…but also rather wonderful.” Applied to the film itself, he’s half right.
09/11/09
A supposedly grown-up drama like The Other Man ought to have scruples about where it plans to take you. Trickiness for its own sake is simply a cheat.
09/11/09
It's a decent adult drama that should keep you guessing.
09/11/09
Top CriticAn oddly affecting drama offers much food for thought on the after-effects of adultery and the toxin that can wither our soul when we are overtaken by jealousy.
09/11/09
The sexual temperature remains a safe, nap-inducing 98.6.
09/11/09
Top CriticCan you believe that a guy who once played Oskar Schindler and a woman who was Abigail Adams can go slumming in a less-than-appealing soap?
09/11/09
The screen version of Bernhard Schlink's short story The Other Man does not deliver. The secret at the heart of the film, after all the fractured narrative convolutions, is anti-climactic, and the conclusion is strained and awkward.
09/10/09
Top CriticLatest News for The Other Man
September 10, 2009:
Critics Consensus: 9 Looks Great, But The Plot's Weak
This week at the movies, we've got post-apocalyptic conflict (9, with voice work by Elijah Wood and Jennifer Connelly); Antarctic intrigue (Whiteout, starring Kate Beckinsale... More...
July 31, 2009:
Trailer Bulletin: The Other Man 
Why does Liam Neeson want to kill Antonio Banderas? Find out by watching the trailer for "The Other Man." More...
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