This film is ultimately disappointing and deserving of its relatively low rating because its edit is annoying and telegraphs where it is going. World-class actors contribute tension and pace and a poor edit simply brings the movie to a complete stop. If ever there was an example of how important editing is to a movie, this is it. Film classes should look at this movie, deconstruct it, and put it back together in a more interesting way. If you watch this film, think about simply reordering several scenes to build tension and mystery and remove confusion. It's a worthwhile exercise. Movies are a complex undertaking that requires contributions of so many -- many folks labored over this film but the folks who put it together just didn't have the talent to pull it off.

The movie is very confusing, but the few clues suggest the following. Lisa married young and was probably bored. She had the chance to experiment and did so with the silly Ralph, a man whose life is purely on fantasy. She hid the affair from her husband for several years who was completely devoted to her, but when struck by cancer, she decided to leave him clues so that he could discover the affair. This is probably where your mind has to be a little twisted to follow her logic for doing this. In leaving naked photo evidence of her affair and clues to help her husband track down her lover the nut case, she could only expect that he could become enraged and hate her. Given how much they are supposed to love each other, one can only think that she was concerned that he might not be able to get over her death and so proceeded to make sure that he would hate her and in the process, get over her.

Peter worked out her plan in the end and that just made him forgive her and love her regardless - hence the 'thank god for Ralph' at the party and the comment to his daughter at the station 'she didn't know us at all did she'.

Looking at the cast of "The Other Man" you could consider in buying this film: Liam Nesson, Antonio Banderas, Laura Linney and Romola Garai. The movie delivers? Yes. All that much? No. And if you consider that this was directed by Richard Eyre who directed great ensemble casts in "Iris" and "Notes on a Scandal" there are things that makes of "The Other Man" an inferior film than this two examples.

Neeson plays Peter, a man married with a beautiful wife (Linney), that discover that she hides from him a long affair with Ralph (pronunced Rafe, played by Banderas). What Peter does? Tracks down this man in Italy and tries to see who he really is and what his wife saw in that men. His first idea is to kill this guy but he's always reluctant, so he keeps on playing games with his guy who seems to love Peter's wife very much.

The whole drama pretending to be a thriller goes well, it makes the story interesting until the ending which is quite disappointing and a little bit unexpected. But if you think I can buy the idea that these two guys reveal part of their lives to each other during chess games matches, well I did not buy it. And if they were drunk maybe but that was not the case. Two unknown figures sharing their romantic passages of their lives (with the same woman) is something unbelievable (or perhaps it's just me who likes to play the mysterious guy in front of other people so it's very difficult to make me really share something of this kind of nature). This scenes were great, interesting dialog, except for some angered reaction of Neeson throwing the pieces away after losing a match.

It's a very psychological work about how one can deal with adultery, different reactions might come from the audience, it's very interesting the way Peter does that, changing his persona all the way through this chase after his wife's lover. It's a great material for passionate people who can't forget a betrayal and feel a need to do something about it. This film will make that kind of people think again just like Peter changed his mind in the course of the story.

The acting is decent, the cast is at their best considering the material they were giving. More complexity, more realism and more thrilling moments instead of some bits here and there would make this film better. 7/10