Film Review: SOME OTHER WOMAN (2023): Joel David Moore Emulates David Lynch in a Watchable but Confusing Thriller

Some Other Woman Review

Some Other Woman (2023) Film Review, a movie directed by Joel David Moore, written by Yuri Baranovsky, Angela Gulner and Josh Long and starring Tom Felton, Ashley Greene, Amanda Crew, Rick Fox, Brooke Lyons, Samantha Kaine, Caroline Raynaud and Jim Wrigley.

Some Other Woman is director Joel David Moore’s ambiguous and stylish new thriller featuring Tom Felton, Amanda Crew and Ashley Greene. This essentially feels like a movie about a woman scorned by the love of her life but it becomes an exercise in ambitious film-making thanks to the enormous risks Moore takes with the movie’s story line which was penned by Yuri Baranovsky, Angela Gulner and Josh Long. While Felton is pretty intriguing in his role as the husband, it is Crew who stands out as the most relatable character in the picture.

Felton’s character in Some Other Woman seems to be unnamed in most online posts about this film. Though he’s called Peter, had I known that, perhaps, maybe his name is not supposed to be real before watching the film, I may have viewed it with more ambiguity and actually expected the type of movie this really is underneath the surface. Moore’s movie is completely absorbing in its opening scenes thanks to the charisma of Crew (Sex Drive) who wears some finely chosen outfits in the movie which help highlight her personality to the audience. Set on a tropical island, Eve Carver (Crew) yearns to make the most of her life and live each day to the fullest. She had artistic ambitions but is now comfortable with her male partner (Felton).

As the plot progresses, Eve’s period is late and she comes to believe she is pregnant. However, despite planning ahead and trying to deal with how to tell Felton’s character the news, unexpected things start to happen. Blood appears in the toilet which crushes Eve’s hopes and dreams. Enter Renata (Greene), a conventionally beautiful woman who seems to be engaged in some kind of intimate relations with the Felton character. When Eve catches on to the presence of Renata, the film throws the audience for a loop with a series of scenes that could be left up to audience interpretation given their lack of conclusive evidence in regards to what is really going on here.

It is eventually revealed that one of our women in the film is completely imagining having a baby. As scenes escalate, you may feel you’re in David Lynch territory. This picture could resemble Lynch’s own Lost Highway and certain sequences of Vanilla Sky as it starts unveiling one twist after another. This is the type of movie you either have to take notes on or watch twice to understand each and every thing that happens in it.

The three central performances are fine with Crew taking top honors with the film’s most difficult role. She is the one with the most passion and the most to lose within the context of the movie and to Crew’s credit, she keeps the audience invested in the suspense with a really absorbing performance. Felton is the movie’s big question mark of a character as the viewer is never quite sure what to make of him. Greene’s role always feels like an extension of some of the grander themes the movie has under its sleeve rather than a character in and of herself. Greene is perfectly cast but the audience will ultimately root for Crew’s Eve since she is established first and whether or not Renata is actually real remains a question that I may need to see the film again to find the answer to.

Moore’s use of the island location is very pivotal to understanding the context of the characterizations which the movie presents. This could all actually be inspired by Fantasy Island in regards to the wicked nature of some of the plot developments that occur. Still, the island is very exquisite to look at and Crew’s outfits, again, make her fit right into the setting of the film.

Unfortunately, the audience becomes embroiled in the movie’s big question marks and doesn’t always get satisfying answers to questions regarding whether or not Felton’s character is actually trying to gaslight Eve and if he actually has succeeded if so. Some Other Woman employs a lot of trick photography and imagery and some unnerving use of music too. I just couldn’t put the pieces of it together and it’s debatable whether Moore wants us to walk away with definitive answers.

Some Other Woman is a showcase for the versatile Amanda Crew’s radiance and natural acting abilities. Greene and Felton more or less succeed in supporting her performance but the ambiguity of the whole thing will make viewers want to go back and view certain scenes over again. A good film is one where the viewer can grasp the overall nature of the story line and piece together the elements that are not fully interwoven into the plot by the end of the picture. Some Other Woman does make the viewer care about Eve and does give us an overview of what it’s trying to accomplish but the jury is still out as to whether the ends justify the means. As it is, this is a film with more style than actual substance.

Rating: 6/10

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