Love and Other Impossible Pursuits 2010

Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: Soap opera for the bourgeoisie, The Other Woman is the kind of movie Lifetime audiences would gush over as sensitive and wise. Read more

Lisa Rosman, Time Out: Ultimately, it's Kudrow who saves the picture: Blazing and bitter, she may be allotted a third dimension only near the end of the movie, but, man, does she pack a wallop when it finally comes. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: I didn't like a single one of these insufferable narcissists, the kid included. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Roos does find elements of truth here and there; frustratingly, there are too few of them. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: There's a lot of story (and backstory) here, which Roos tries to squeeze in every which way, via flashbacks, long speeches, and montages set to earnest indie-pop. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Portman spends most of her time crying or pouting. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: Often mistakes hollow hysterics for gripping drama. Read more

Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times: Equating interpersonal issues with drama, "The Other Woman" is mostly flat and plodding. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: The screenwriter and director, Don Roos, squashes a bookful of incidents into a pile of screenplay snippets and smothers his actors in them. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: While Natalie Portman and Lisa Kudrow do some terrific work, it's hard to care about these awful characters. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Thanks to Portman's superb work, we feel her pain acutely. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: A not-bad movie (written and directed by Don Roos) based on a pretty good book ("Love and Other Impossible Pursuits" by Ayelet Waldman). Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It's not good enough to warrant a theatrical showing but not bad enough to deserve universal derision. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: One of the bigger challenges in Natalie Portman's career, and she responds with sublime work. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: "The Other Woman" feels like it's directed at an infernally narrow upper-middle-class urbanite demographic, without being even halfway distinctive enough to attract that particular audience. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Natalie Portman may have the black swan and the white swan down, but she's still working on the gray. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: It's a kind of unofficial sequel or sibling, three decades later, to Robert Benton's Oscar-winning Kramer vs. Kramer. Read more

Melissa Anderson, Village Voice: Director Don Roos, who also scripted, wobbles tonally, sometimes disastrously. Read more