First, I really liked this movie. It held my attention, it was a good human drama and yet it never seemed overly melodramatic - all the characters seemed tragic to a degree, but nevertheless all were grounded in reality; they were believable and for the most part the situations they found themselves in were believable. Infidelity, mixed families, grief, unforgiveness and bitterness - all believable. Second, I really like Natalie Portman. I've liked her from the first time I saw her in "Where The Heart Is," I've liked most of what I've seen her in since, and I think she was a deserving winner of the Oscar for Best Actress in "Black Swan." I liked her performance in this movie. As Emilia Greenleaf, her character was complex and emotionally troubled and she played it beautifully. Watching Emilia trying to develop a relationship with her new stepson William (Charlie Tahan) was almost painful at times - as it was undoubtedly supposed to be. Watching her deal with grief and guilt over the death of her own daughter at the age of just 3 days was sad.
For all that, the movie was weakened by two things. As much as I liked Natalie Portman's performance and could understand Emilia's pain, I could never find myself developing any real sympathy for her. To mention the other title by which the movie is known, Emilia was the quintessential "other woman." She begins work at a lawfirm as a young lawyer, spies a more senior partner and decides she wants him - the fact that he's married with a son doesn't seem to bother her at all. She goes out and gets what she wants. I'm not letting Jack (the lawyer she falls for, played by Scott Cohen) off the hook. He decided to give up on his marriage to Carolyn (who was played by Lisa Kudrow, and this was a different sort of character for Kudrow - very hard and bitter and angry, and she pulled it off well.) But still, my sense all through the movie was that there was an attempt to pull out feelings of sympathy for Emilia. Yes, lots of bad things had happened in her life. But I never felt the sympathy. Lack of sympathy for the main character was the first problem here. The second problem was that the last 20 minutes or so turned unbelievably sappy. After everything that had happened, everything seemed to work out far too easily, all the relationships seemed healed, everybody seemed to walk away happy after all the bitterness that had characterized the movie up to that point. That was problematic, and frankly took away somewhat from the emotional power of the movie - a movie that was really about unresolved anger and grief - by turning it into a feel-good message at the end.
Still, weaknesses aside, it's well worth watching for another winning performance by Natalie Portman. (7/10)
For all that, the movie was weakened by two things. As much as I liked Natalie Portman's performance and could understand Emilia's pain, I could never find myself developing any real sympathy for her. To mention the other title by which the movie is known, Emilia was the quintessential "other woman." She begins work at a lawfirm as a young lawyer, spies a more senior partner and decides she wants him - the fact that he's married with a son doesn't seem to bother her at all. She goes out and gets what she wants. I'm not letting Jack (the lawyer she falls for, played by Scott Cohen) off the hook. He decided to give up on his marriage to Carolyn (who was played by Lisa Kudrow, and this was a different sort of character for Kudrow - very hard and bitter and angry, and she pulled it off well.) But still, my sense all through the movie was that there was an attempt to pull out feelings of sympathy for Emilia. Yes, lots of bad things had happened in her life. But I never felt the sympathy. Lack of sympathy for the main character was the first problem here. The second problem was that the last 20 minutes or so turned unbelievably sappy. After everything that had happened, everything seemed to work out far too easily, all the relationships seemed healed, everybody seemed to walk away happy after all the bitterness that had characterized the movie up to that point. That was problematic, and frankly took away somewhat from the emotional power of the movie - a movie that was really about unresolved anger and grief - by turning it into a feel-good message at the end.
Still, weaknesses aside, it's well worth watching for another winning performance by Natalie Portman. (7/10)