September 2009 | blackfilm.com

The Other Man, written, directed and produced by English director Richard Eyre, stars Liam Neeson as Peter, a conservative English software company executive, whose quest to return to everyday life after his American shoe designer wife Lisa (Laura Linney) succumbs to cancer is interrupted. When Peter retrieves a phone message from Lisa’s cell phone his grief is quickly overshadowed by shock; he expects Lisa may have been having an affair. After confirming his suspicion, Peter’s need for answers overshadows their daughter Abigail’s (Romola Garai) pleas that he simply let Lisa go, leading him from their home in England to the fashion capital Milan in search of the other man.

Eyre, whose directorial credits include 2007’s Notes on a Scandal, incorporates a flashback style to unravel all the missed signals cluing the viewer to the fact that the state of Peter and Lisa’s marriage was not what it seemed. The cinematography is magnificent; scenes of London, Milan and Lake Como cast in shadow together with a solemn musical score effectively contribute to the dark tone of the film. However, if a thriller is the genre Eyre hoped to achieve, he did not duplicate the success of Notes on a Scandal. The tension hardly builds after Peter identifies Ralph (Antonio Banderas) in Milan, and sets out to confront him. There is no explosive climax.

The viewer is forced to ruminate about why Peter acted the way he did after learning the truth bout Ralph; the film offers no further insight to aid in deciphering his complex emotions. It could have been an interesting story, told from an interesting perspective, but it fell short. Despite the prowess of the all star cast, including Banderas in an uncharacteristic role, the characters in the film were insufficiently developed. The viewer naturally feels despondent about all of the characters, save Abigail, by film’s end. The film will leave fans of Laura Linney disappointed for her, but suggests good things lay ahead for Romola Garai.