Carly Whitten (played by Cameron Diaz) is an attorney in New York City who does everything by the book, including when it comes to her romantic relationships. That all changes though when she meets the uber handsome and successful Mark King (played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). He’s swept her off her feet and all is well until she discovers that he is married to Kate (played by Leslie Mann). Crushed and betrayed, both women band together to take him down. Along the way they discover yet another woman (played by Kate Upton) who is another victim of his lying and cheating ways. She decides to join them.
I like Cameron Diaz more often than not and Leslie Mann is almost always funny so I saw the potential in this film right away. I also see the appeal of women who were scorned by the same person befriending one another as opposed to turning on one another. It makes for an entertaining story, not to mention they could combine resources to maximize the effect of their revenge.
Leslie Mann brings her usual dose of quirky awkwardness as Kate. I thought she was very funny and she has a knack for physical comedy as well. She and Cameron Diaz play off one another well in this unlikely friendship. Even though I didn’t like the individual characters too much, as a team they are fun.
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau at this point for me is Jeremy Lannister (from the tv series A Game of Thrones for those of you who might be living under a rock) so there was that underlying level there to make his character here more amusing. In my mind Jamie Lannister has simply leapt through time and he remains an entitled and lying a-hole, just minus the killing and incest this time. And it was a lot of fun watching him suffer as the women exacted their revenge on him in several hilarious ways.
Kate Upton is the newcomer here and it shows. She is not the best actress and that is putting it nicely. Also aside from her chest, which is her biggest claim to fame, I found it really hard to believe that Carly should feel jealous of her character considering her own physique. Cameron Diaz is super fit so it was somewhat of a head-scratcher to see her going on about Upton’s body while she herself looked awesome. Perhaps that was the point of it. Either way, I believe the film wouldn’t have been much different without the inclusion of Upton’s character. It felt more like they were mainly capitalizing on her popularity in the modeling world to sell the film.
Overall, it’s a fun and not too serious movie that’s perfect for a girl’s night out. It does bring the laughs!