The Other Man English Movie
Cast And Crew
Genre: Drama, Adaptation
Release Date: September 25, 2009
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Distributor: Image Entertainment, Inc
Starring: Amanda Drew, Paterson Joseph, Craig Parkinson, Romola Garai, Laura Linney
Director: Richard Eyre
Producer: Michael Dreyer, Tracey Scoffield, Richard Eyre, David Richenthal
Reviews
After many years of marriage a man's wife dies. Shortly afterwards, a letter arrives for her from another man. Obsessed with finding out the truth, the husband writes back, impersonating his dead wife. Soon he discovers a love which he cannot understand.
A Rainmark Films presentation, in association with Gotham Prods. (International sales: Ealing Studios Intl., London. North American sales: ICM, Los Angeles.) Produced by Frank Doelger, Tracey Scoffield, Michael Dreyer. Executive producers, Richard Eyre, Jan Mojito, Mary Beth O'Connor, David Richenthal.
The story of a husband who suspects his wife of adultery, and sets out to track down the other man in her life.
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). The husband sets out to find the other man, and forms an unusual friendship with him; through a series of informal meetings and emails, the husband uncovers the truth about his wife's affair, and in a stunning denouement, reveals the truth about his wife to her unsuspecting lover.
The Other Man, based on a short story by Bernhard Schlink (THE READER), was written and directed by Richard Eyre (NOTES ON A SCANDAL, IRIS) along with co-writer Charles Wood (IRIS). The producers on the film include Frank Doelger (JOHN ADAMS, MY HOUSE IN UMBRIA, THE GATHERING STORM), Tracey Scoffield, Michael Dreyer (NINE, STARDUST, FINDING NEVERLAND), Mary Beth O'Connor and David Richenthal (TAPE) with original music by Stephen Warbeck (SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, VANILLA GORILLA, SKELLIG)
In this film by Richard Eyre, Liam Neeson is the husband, Peter, who stumbles across an incriminating e-mail to his wife, Lisa (Laura Linney) -- which leads him to snoop around her laptop and uncover a trove of photographs of herself in Italy with a handsome man who Peter doesn't know.
So he jets off to Milan, where the e-mail says Lisa and the other man are set to rendezvous. He tracks the guy down -- his name is Ralph (Antonio Banderas), pronounced in the Welsh manner ("Rafe") -- then contrives to meet him. Before long, Peter and Ralph are regularly playing chess together in a café.
Chess is a pretty strained metaphor and not just for the game that Peter is playing with Ralph. It's also emblematic of a game that Eyre, whose script is adapted from a Bernhard Schlink short story, is playing with the audience.
The film bounces back and forth in time, repeating scenes with new context or letting them play out slightly longer. Eyre keeps us guessing about when the husband will reveal himself and what he'll do next.
There's also the question of Ralph himself, who may not be the wealthy gigolo he passes himself off as. But Banderas has trouble capturing the uncertainty beneath the façade; he seems too smooth by half to be party to any of these situations.
By contrast, Neeson's Peter is too much of a hard-charger to be a decent chess player in any sense of the word. He's an angry man whose pride has been hurt; it seems hard to believe that he can keep himself in check long enough to reach the conclusion he seeks.
What's missing here, unfortunately, is Linney, whose character disappears less than halfway through the film. Linney is such a strong actress that her absence is noticeable; her presence takes up space, even when she's not on camera because we're looking for her.
But she's not there. As a result, The Other Man feels like a movie that focuses on the hole, instead of the doughnut.
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