2009 | U.S. | 115 minutes
Director: Richard Eyre
Writers: Richard Eyre, Charles Wood (based on a short story by Bernhard Schlink)
Cast: Liam Neeson, Antonio Banderas, Laura Linney
Distributor: Image Entertainment
Cdn video distributor: Image Entertainment
The Wife jokingly calls me “Bastardo” sometimes. She picked it up from an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. She calls me that because the sadist in me loves playing mind games on her. She can be very neurotic, and one trick that never fails to push her buttons is when I pretend to get all serious and say, “Sweetie, I hate to do this but there’s something we have to talk about.” A worried look always erupts on her face. She nervously braces herself, while I quietly milk the tension for as long as I can, before I finally quip, “Nah, I’m just kidding.”
Some day that stunt will be the death of me — a gory blood-spattered end at the hands of my darling — and when the truth is revealed that I’ve tortured her with this for years, there won’t be a jury in this country that’ll convict her.
I was thinking this as I watched the plot of The Other Man unfold because it uses much the same tactic, and it’s maddening. Finally I’m getting a taste of my own medicine, I guess.
Part of my mistake was in watching the trailer for this beforehand. It tempts you with the promise of a mystery thriller — and it is for awhile — until it pulls off its mask and shows its true face. The set-up is, a woman (Laura Linney) vanishes and her husband (Liam Neeson) uncovers evidence there is “another man” (Antonio Banderas) in her life. He wants to track him down. He wants to meet him. He also wants to kill him. It’s an engaging start to a story. Where it ends is stunning in its banality.
What you’ll discover is a story that plays out like a variation of a Three’s Company episode. We — the audience — are like one of those characters who overhear a conversation which, without the benefit of context, provokes assumptions about all manner of degenerate activity. Of course we’re being prepped for a shocker when the actual context finally surfaces.
The film does this by utilizing two literary traditions. One is the mystery thriller. In a typical mystery the audience is in cahoots with the lead. What they know, we know. The thrill is in figuring out how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together. In The Sixth Sense, for example, the twist happens when the Bruce Willis character finally gets the last piece of the puzzle. It’s a gasp-inducing moment for him, and the viewer. But the surprise in The Other Man is that this mystery is being married with another literary technique.
That technique is known as the “unreliable narrator.” This is usually a first-person narrator who tells us a story but, at the end, we discover they’re not telling us everything that is pertinent. They could even be lying. This was used to good effect in The Usual Suspects, and is a handy device for all kinds of characters — except the hero.
In The Other Man, Liam Neeson‘s character is presented as our conduit to the story. We go where he goes. We may not agree with his scheme to commit murder but we come to sympathize with him. We understand the pain he must be feeling. Except we don’t understand, because we find out he knows something the film stubbornly doesn’t share with us. We’re suppose to be surprised when we finally discover what it is but it’s a cheap deception, and the audience doesn’t deserve it.
The films of Atom Egoyan love pulling the same trick. I’m not aware if they still do because I stopped watching them for this reason. It basically involves taking a simple story and telling it in non-linear fashion. The Other Man uses a similar non-linear technique to keep us guessing but it at least cleverly cloaks its dull reality by making us think we’re watching an erotic thriller. Still, it divorces us from the characters. We are no longer “in” the story, with the characters, but outside it. Alone.
It’s a very alienating device.
Those who indulge in this form of storytelling will surely explain there is a purpose to their methods. That they want to challenge our perceptions, begging us to think about why we tend to see things differently when viewed from a different angle. Yeah, whatever.
The Other Man is based on a short story by Bernhard Schlink, who also wrote the source novel for The Reader, and that explains a lot. The Reader provokes similar thoughts via its piecemeal, non-linear approach. It suggests that telling the whole truth is not necessarily wise.
Perhaps. But as the clench-fisted, primal scream reaction of my Sweetie confirms (whenever I mess with her head) conscious deception is not the best road to travel if you want to illicit such discussions. It might even get you killed. Forgive me, Sweetie.
- Theatrical release date: September 11, 2009
- Video release date: December 15, 2009
- Production Budget: N/A
- Worldwide Box Office: $149,528
FUN ALTERNATIVE: If the subject of infidelity strikes your fancy, Unfaithful is a gem.
Director Adrian Lynne has touched on this topic before with Indecent Proposal and Fatal Attraction and, as with his previous films, he does not attempt to demonize the marriage of his characters (here played by Diane Lane and Richard Gere) nor does the cheating spouse (Lane) actively seek out a lover. Once more fate intervenes with her chance meeting with the very handsome Olivier Martinez.
The sex scenes here are some of the most graphic and erotic of any Hollywood feature. Arguably the most erotic. It’s also perfectly plausible how her character could fall for this guy because the sex is not just a physical act, but a seduction of her most erogenous zone — her mind.
How their affair evolves — and ends — as well as its repercussions is quite unexpected. There are plenty of unexpected twists. But it never fails to lose sight of the issue that betrayal always has consequences.
Despite its serious subject matter, with its inherent depressing elements, it’s exciting drama throughout.
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AUTHOR’S NOTE: The last few weeks have been a busy time, helping to promote the Corinth Films release of The Bicycle Thief with a variety of b&w ads for The New York Times, as well as its upcoming premiere at the Music Hall Theatre in L.A. This is why I haven’t posted in quite a few weeks.
Besides this other work intruded which I can’t detail at the moment, but I should have a post about one of those projects in early January.
Thus far in this blog I’ve attempted to address the common interest in video new releases but, as a recreational exercise, it’s proven not only to be a time-consuming task, but one that detracts from my original intention (as reflected in the name “Fun Flicks and Fabulous Finds”).
The above write-up for The Other Man was written back in November and I’ve held back on posting it — and others — because I felt it further diminishes what this blog was supposed to be about.
But that’s something I hope to remedy in the New Year.