“Live your best life, otherwise someone else will do it”: the essence of the film Some Other Woman (2023): film meaning, ending explanation, plot summary, description, similar movies.
Country: USA
Genre: mystery, thriller
Year of production: 2023
Director: Joel Moore
Actors: Amanda Crew, Ashley Greene, Tom Felton, Brooke Lyons, Rick Fox.
Slogan: “Live your best life. Otherwise someone else will.”
The meaning of the film Some Other Woman is not so easy to unravel. The screenwriters obviously tried to confuse the sophisticated viewer, trying to find the clue of what is happening on the screen. And yet we will try to do it with the help of the analysis of the content of the film.
What the film is about
So, let’s start with a detailed description of the plot of the film Some Other Woman, explaining the meaning of some episodes.
In the prologue we are told a legend about a fisherman’s wife: a pregnant girl drowned, her husband went in search of her and was also lost in the sea. The unfortunate woman is still between life and death – wandering, looking for a way back to her unborn child and the life she dreamed of. The narrator believes that the girl did not drown. Perhaps she found some way out – maybe she’s one of the lucky ones.
Then we are shown the footage that will be repeated in a slightly different way in the film’s finale. Night. A lonely old fisherman sits on board his vessel. And next to him, right in the sea, there is a struggle: the heroine, whom we will meet in the next episode, is being pulled to the bottom by something. She desperately resists underwater.
Present tense. Day. The heroine, a girl named Eve is surfacing from the water. Coming out of the sea, she looks around restlessly and confused. She is called by her husband and it is as if her memory comes back to her. Smiling, she goes to him. He tells her that his wife has been gone for ages and asks her not to scare herself like that anymore.
From the conversation between Eve and her husband, whose name is Peter, we learn how they met. It was at a small diner. Eve was singing on stage there. Judging by the picture on the wall in the house, the wedding took place in the Netherlands. A mug with the inscription in Dutch “Het leven is goed” (“Life is good”) and a souvenir in the form of a windmill – a symbol of Amsterdam – also reminds us of this.
Some time ago Peter brought Eve here to the Cayman Islands, where they rented a house. Here Peter works for a commercial organisation. His boss Sal (Salvador) and his wife Chelsea often come to see the characters – the couples are family friends. Eve doesn’t work anywhere yet. Peter offers her to replace an employee who has let the firm down. Eve is not thrilled with the idea, but is generally okay with it. She is not at all happy about being on this seemingly sunny paradise island and, according to her husband, feels like she is trapped. Eve wants to have a child and has even prepared a blue-coloured nursery with a cot and toys.
Eve takes a walk with Chelsea along the seafront. She shares the news with her friend that her period is late – she’s probably pregnant. The girls stop outside a street stall. Eve wants to purchase a framed picture of a circle. As Chelsea is distracted by other merchandise, Eve notices members of the local population. A woman in national dress, who had just been inviting passersby to go on boat rides, begins to chant to the beat of drums like a shaman. While listening to the singing, Eve looks out to sea and sees a boat with an old fisherman on board. A frame from the night scene shown at the beginning flashes.
“The Shaman says that Eve looks lost, and suggests that she take a ride on the ship – perhaps then she will find her way. When Eve turns her gaze to the sea again, the ship is no longer there. In the evening, the heroine makes an appointment with the doctor for a pregnancy test. There is a glimpse of a man jumping into the sea from the same boat.
The next day, Eve goes to her new job. In her car we see a souvenir in the form of small shoes with the image of a mill on each.
In the evening, the spouses have a dinner, to which Chelsea and Sal come. The latter quotes an Italian proverb whose meaning can be summed up as, “Take it as it comes or leave it. Make a choice.”
Eve gets her period and realises she is not pregnant. Upset, she leaves the house for the beach and cries. Suddenly, Eve hears a sound like a woman’s scream and sees another girl in the water. She asks her name, but she does not answer. When Eve returns to the house, the girl comes out of the sea. After a while, the heroine notices her already in the bushes under the balcony. Concerned Eve calls her husband. He tries to find the uninvited guest, but in vain.
Eve shares the news with Chelsea that she’s not pregnant after all. Her friend advises her not to despair and not to give up trying to have children. During the conversation, Eve again notices the same overnight guest nearby.
Chelsea persuades Eve to go with her spouse to karaoke, because she loves to sing. But the girl refuses, citing fatigue. Peter, Sal and Chelsea go without her. At the karaoke, the same girl who came out of the sea is watching the concert. After singing, Peter approaches her and strikes up a conversation, starting with the phrase “Did I tell you you look a little like…? I can’t find the word…”. Presumably referring to the girl’s similarities to Eve.
Meanwhile, Eve is taking a bath at home. Submerging herself in the water, she sees again the scene of the night struggle in the sea. As she surfaces, she hears the voice of a child from the room.
The next day, Eve discovers that the mug with the inscription from Amsterdam has suddenly been swapped for another one labelled “Cayman Kind” (can be translated as “Cayman Kind” – a common name for various charity events held here) – a local souvenir.
At work, Eve sees the “girl from the sea” again, walking down the road past the office. And in the evening, the pendant in her car in the form of slippers with the mills of Amsterdam disappears. It’s replaced by a souvenir in the shape of a turtle. It’s a symbol of the Cayman Islands: turtle farming is one of the main activities here. When Eve gets out of the car, we see the “girl from the sea” again in the darkness.
In the morning, Eve tries to get an explanation from her husband for substituting a mug from Amsterdam for a local souvenir. He says that they bought the mug labelled “Cayman Kind” back when they got engaged at the local Oceanside hotel. The girl is shocked, as she clearly remembers that the wedding took place in Amsterdam. Peter adds that he has never been to Amsterdam. What’s more, he shows a photo of them together from the wedding – and there’s a really local landscape in the background.
Pieter calls a psychiatrist, reporting that his wife has had another bout of memory lapses. At the doctor’s appointment, Eve reveals that she wanted to be a singer where she lived. But Peter has taken her to this sunny island where, it would seem, she should be happy. But she isn’t. To become happy, the dream of the stage Eve began to consciously replace the dream of motherhood. However, she can not get pregnant. The girl laments: “With each shattered dream, my heart shatters into so many shards that it would be possible to assemble a whole other woman from what I did not become.”
In the psychiatrist’s office, Eve notices a painting of a circle – the same one she saw on the seafront. The doctor prescribes the patient to take benzodiazepine tablets, which have a soporific and sedative effect.
In her dream, Eve sees the same fishing boat, this time without the old man on board. The words of the “shamaness” are heard: “The soul cries out, cries to the wind, begs for comfort, longs to return to life. Do you wish to take this place?”. Upon waking up, Eve discovers that she slept through the entire weekend under the influence of pills. She notices that the walls in the house are now a different colour – pink.
Jogging along the seafront, Eve again sees a fishing boat with an old man on board. When she arrives at the office, she is surprised to learn that Sal has hired the “girl from the sea” instead of her. Moreover, in the evening in the bar Peter says that with her the firm’s business has improved dramatically. Having voiced her annoyance, Eve goes to the bathroom. In the mirror she sees the “girl from the sea”. The latter is performing a song on stage. Her colleagues call her name – Renata.
Renata passionately starts talking to Sal, Chelsea and Peter, which causes a new wave of indignation from Eve. The heroine causes a scandal. Returning home in the car with Peter, Eve pokes him about how he knows Renata. According to him, he met her last year during a cruise, which Eve herself refused to go on.
Renata then took the heroine’s place. Further than a passing acquaintance, the matter did not go – Peter slept on the sofa almost the entire trip. Eve does not remember such an episode at all. However, the fact of the trip is confirmed by photos on a smartphone. Consoling his wife, Peter calls her “my favourite bear”. This irritates Eve even more, as her husband has never called her that.
Furious, Eve returns to the bar, waits for Renata to come out of there, and starts stalking her. Renata goes to Chelsea’s, talks to her friend, then leaves the house. Eve loses sight of her for a moment. It turns out Renata has noticed the stalking. She accuses Eve of stalking her, saying she’s known Chelsea, Sal, and Peter for a long time. She had a fling with the latter, but nothing more. Renata declares that she will outplay Eve anyway and get on with her life. The impostor then gets into Eve’s car and drives to Peter’s house.
Pursuing Renata already on her bicycle, Eve reaches her house and discovers that her keys do not fit the door. In the bedroom, Renate and Peter make love. In response to Eve’s ranting, they point out that they have been married for a long time and that Eve is the impostor trying to win Renate away from her husband. Indeed, Eve cannot find her own belongings in the house. And when she looks at the ring finger of her hand, she does not find a wedding ring on it. Renate, on the other hand, does have a wedding ring. Peter says he barely knows Eve – they’ve only had a drink once and just talked.
The heroine goes to Chelsea. She advises to sleep, saying that in sleep everything falls into place and the girl will find her way. Having fallen asleep, Eve again sees episodes of struggle in the sea. “The Shamaness says, “Take a step back in your hopes. Listen to your body, surrender to it wholeheartedly.” Taking a step, Eve hears, “This way, are you sure? You don’t see anyone at all?”. At this time people, as if not noticing the girl, walk past her, almost pushing her. Then people disappear somewhere. At the call of the “shamaness” (“Come, child! The time has come”) and her singing, Eve goes to a fishing boat with an old fisherman on board. The latter offers to make himself comfortable, for there is a long journey ahead. The boat sails out to sea.
At night, Chelsea’s dog barks at the bed where the heroine fell asleep. But the girl is no longer there. Neither Sal nor Chelsea, judging by their behaviour, remember that Eve stayed the night in their living room. Although her bike (originally Renata’s bike) is still on the porch. At this time, Renate watches the small light of the ship receding into the sea with a calm and confident look.
The storyline begins, with Renata now as the protagonist. At the beginning of the story we hear again the familiar legend of the drowned fisherman’s wife.
We are watching the family life of Peter and Renata. The girl is pregnant. While waiting for the child, she also thinks over a business plan – Renata plans to open a bakery on the island. Peter is not enthusiastic about the idea, but in general is not against it.
A baby appears. Renate seems happy. However, soon the idyll is broken – we are shown that in the distance, in the sea again appeared the same fishing boat.
One day after an evening with Sal, Chelsea and other guests, Peter has a serious conversation with his wife. He is unhappy that she is flirting with Sal, who is his boss. Annoyed, he reminds Renate that he is the only one who earns money for the family, and speaks out about his wife’s idea to open a bakery – it is a sure failure. All because of the child.
Left alone and worried about this conversation, Renata hears something that sounds like a woman’s scream. History repeats itself. Eve appears from the sea and begins to follow Renata. Now Renata notices strange changes in her life: instead of a “Cayman” mug and a wedding photograph, “Amsterdam” ones appear. While the heroine remembers the wedding in the Cayman Islands, and Peter – in Amsterdam. Renata tells her problem to the psychiatrist in a similar way to Eve. The heroine complains that her dreams are not realised and that she has to give her energies to her child. Once again there are glimpses of the night struggle at sea.
The strangeness continues: Peter calls Renata “duckling”, which surprises her. We are shown Eve sitting in a bar – exactly like Renata at the beginning of the film. This means that the conversation with Peter is repeated – it is left out of the film.
In the evening, Renata makes a scene of jealousy. While the couple are bickering, we hear a baby crying in the other room. Renate chides her husband for not going to comfort the baby. But Peter is perplexed: there is no baby. Bursting into the nursery, which has changed its colour from pink to blue, Renate is horrified to realise that it is true: reality has changed dramatically and she has no baby girl.
We are shown a close-up picture of the same fishing boat with a fisherman on board. Nearby, in the sea underwater, we see a woman’s silhouette. The inscription on the frame reads, “For Every Catch, A Tale Or Two.” The translation is, “For every catch, a story or two” – probably a fishing saying and a metaphor for what is happening in the film.
In the bar, Peter tells Eve about his life falling apart thanks to Renata. She comforts him. Peter tries to kiss her. But Eve pulls away. To the line “I thought that’s what you wanted …” the girl replies: “Me too …”.
Eve leaves, whereupon Renata begins to chase her. The chase shifts to the pier. Renate asks: “Where’s my baby?”. Eve replies that there never was a baby. She says that neither a baby, nor a beautiful home, nor a “beautiful” life has fixed anything. Renate says, “I know it’s hard to constantly make sure everyone is happy. At the same time not to think about your own happiness … And there is none …”. She says that Eve needs her, she can’t live without her – “It’s the only way to get her own.”
After saying this, Renata attacks Eve and wounds her in the leg with a machete. Immediately she finds the same wound in her own leg. The fight continues underwater.
Eve comes ashore and sees a fishing boat with an old fisherman in it. He looks at the girl seriously. Renata comes out of the water. At the end of the fight, both wounded girls plunge into the water.
A clear day. The words of the “shamaness”: “The sea gives. But, my God, it also takes away. The souls are desperate to make their way back to the shore. Poor things just want another chance at love, at embracing, at being. Come, child – the time has come.” The “shamaness” herself approaches the wounded girl lying on the shore and smiles kindly.
We hear Eve’s voice: “Someone once told me a story about a woman living in anxiety. At some point in her life, impossible to pinpoint, she took the wrong path, veered off course from where she was being herself. For a long, long time she thought there was no going back – it was the end. There are those who still see her sometimes. She wanders, waiting, looking for a way back to the life she dreamed of”
At this time we are shown Chelsea discovering among the toys above her baby’s cradle those very small souvenir clogs with Amsterdam mills. She has a look of bewilderment on her face. Peter, on the other hand, is sorting through the things he has brought to work in his office and finds among them the very same souvenir in the shape of a windmill.
His face expresses something like regret. Then he arrives at the bar, where a cheerful Sal is already sitting. Peter joins in drinking alcohol and is clearly looking sadly ahead of him.
At the end, Eve enters the stage in a smart dress – and it’s not a bar. The presenter says: “Let’s welcome back our favourite lady in red”. It looks like the girl is performing at a truly prestigious venue. The final words of the heroine: “… she was numb, she suffered, she thought: all possibilities are exhausted, there is no choice. But she was wrong.” Eve calmly, confidently and with a slight smile looks at the audience, takes a breath to start singing.
Questions and answers – Q&A
There is no definite answer to this question. It is unlikely that even the screenwriters can do it. All because they tried to combine two independent stories in one. The first story is a legend about a drowned pregnant fisherman’s wife who is trying to return home. We hear it several times throughout the film.
The second story is about the heroine’s search for the right path in life, expressed in the struggle of her alter egos – her second selves.
It is impossible to explain the meaning of the plot of Some Other Woman with only one of these stories, ignoring the other. Otherwise, many inconsistencies arise. Some episodes will seem superfluous. Harmoniously unite them in a single interpretation, if it is possible, then with great difficulty, because they are initially different – they tell about different things. And yet the authors for the sake of the “puzzle” of the plot obviously counted on it.
Further, based on the made detailed analysis of the plot, we will try to answer the individual questions arising in the course of viewing and explain what meaning was laid down by the creators of the film.
Unambiguously no. It is clear that both Peter and the other characters distinguish between Eve and Renata in their lives. It is reality itself and the role these two girls play in it that changes.
This is where mysticism comes in – the very legend of the drowned girl brought to life. The soul of the unfortunate woman (or rather, a part of her), longing to realise her dream and bring back her child, as the film says, has found a way to return to the shore. It literally enters into the lives of people who did not know it at all before. It’s no coincidence that we are shown at the beginning of the film as Eve emerges from the water confused. It’s as if her memory suddenly comes back to her at the sight of her husband. In fact, it is not a memory that comes back, but a certain mould of her personality that is “uploaded”. In the same way, information (“memories”) about her are “downloaded” for the others.
At first everything goes on as usual in the recreated life of the heroine. But as soon as there is an acute dissatisfaction with what is happening, a second incarnation of the same heroine appears – another part of the soul of the unfortunate drowned woman. Recall that Renata appeared from the sea when Eve saw the blood in the toilet bowl and realised that she was not pregnant. And Eve appeared as an impostor in Renata’s life after a conversation with Peter, who was jealous of her and disapproved of her bakery business idea.
Then one embodied part of the soul begins to supplant the other. The displaced part acts consciously, realises what it’s doing. But as soon as it manages to drive out its predecessor, it sort of forgets about it and lives the life of its “character”. Then everything repeats itself.
By the way, the heroine’s names are not accidental. Eve is Eve, that is literally “the first woman”. Renata is Latin for “reborn, born again”.
Reality changes, one might say, automatically, adjusting to the characteristics of this or that incarnation. Eve wants to give birth to a boy – hence the blue-coloured walls. She loves Amsterdam and dislikes the local sunny island – that’s why her wedding to Peter “happened” in Amsterdam. Renate gave birth to a baby girl – the walls are painted pink. She likes the Cayman Islands – the wedding “happened” here.
Each part of the drowned woman’s soul (Eve and Renate) chooses a different path, but each has the wrong one. For in both cases, the true dream is replaced by the “normal for any woman” dream of having a child. In Eve’s case this manifests itself in her attempts to get pregnant and give birth, in Renata’s case these attempts are successful. After all, Renata is in a sense a corrected version of Eve.
This “not true” dream, the dream of a child, is actually an echo of the tragedy of the drowned woman. By drowning, the unfortunate woman died herself and lost her unborn child. In her new life, she tries to make up for this loss.
Before the final battle between Renate and Eve, the latter says that there is no child and never was. This is probably true. Alas, the child is only part of the setting of the heroine’s “beautiful” life. Its existence, like everything else, is adjusted to the choices she makes.
In the course of the action, the authors repeatedly emphasise that Eve-Renata is still a child herself. She needs to sort out her own life first, and then take responsibility for someone else’s. It’s not for nothing that the “shamaness” calls Eve that: “child.” When Renata plays one of the variations of “crocodile”, she guesses her character and it turns out to be the American chef Julia Child. The surname is important here – it’s a hint.
The name Peter is a variation of the Greek Petros, in turn derived from “petra” “rock” or “cliff”. Eve-Renata, a girl from the sea, is literally nailed to him and he becomes a safe haven for her thirsty soul. But this “cliff guy” cannot make the heroine happy. Only she can do that.
Sal and Chelsea – not as simple as it seems. Salvador’s name has Spanish roots and means “saviour”. His wife’s name Chelsea is of Latin origin and means “port on the sea.” The couple act as guardian angels of sorts, albeit perhaps unknowingly. It is not for nothing that in the scene on the seafront, when Yves wants to buy a painting of a circle, Chelsea states, “It’s a circle.” In the original language, English, the phrase is: “That’s a circle”. It can also be translated as “That’s the cycle” – in other words, “the stage of rebirth.” Chelsea adds: “I can’t let you walk away with just a circle,” seemingly meaning that the shop should buy something else. But the phrase could also be interpreted as “I can’t let you stop at one cycle,” meaning one that doesn’t suit the heroine.
“The shamaness” is obviously the guide of the drowned woman’s soul to the world of the living. And the old man on the fishing boat is most likely her husband. The same one who also died looking for her. Probably, now he serves the higher powers and also helps the heroine in her rebirths.
The character of a girl named Keiro (Caro) is introduced for a reason. She doesn’t seem to fulfil any function, being just a background. We didn’t mention her in the discussion above. But perhaps she is the embodiment of the unborn child of the drowned woman in this life. Her name translates from Spanish as “precious”.
Explanation of the ending of Some Other Woman
The protagonist herself utters what can be considered an explanation of the ending of Some Other Woman: “… thought there was no choice. But … I was wrong.” Eve-Renata initially followed a path imposed on her, but in the end she chose her own – the path of realising a long-held dream of the stage. So this cycle of rebirth is likely to be her last.
This explanation of the ending is supported by the acting in the finale. Judging by the expression on Chelsea’s face at the end, she doesn’t remember Eve-Renata, as if she never existed. She sees the souvenir of the slippers as something alien, as if it had inexplicably appeared among her child’s toys. Obviously because in this reality, Chelsea had never met Eve-Renata. She just never came to the Cayman Islands. Peter, on the other hand, seems to be sad about the girl looking at the toy mill. He probably broke up with his lover back in Amsterdam, as she refused to go to the island with him, following her real dream.
The meaning of the film Some Other Woman
Despite the intricacies of the plot, the essence of Some Other Woman can be captured by simply quoting its tagline: “Live your best life. Otherwise, someone else will.” In other words: don’t try to be comfortable for others, follow your dream and don’t change it for anything.
Alas, by mixing the “choosing Eve-Renata’s path” storyline with the “drowned woman’s soul seeks to go back” storyline, the authors have introduced confusion into their work. They have given the audience plenty of reasons to search for a hidden meaning, which probably isn’t there.
Similar films
- Black Swan (USA, 2010): A Bolshoi Theatre prima ballerina has a rival who could destroy her career;
- Enemy (Canada, Spain, France, 2013): the hero discovers that he has a doppelganger – a Denis Villeneuve thriller that has managed to become a cult film;
- Mulholland Drive (USA, France, 2001): a puzzle film by David Lynch;
- Orphan Black (Canada, 2013-2017): a sci-fi series about the adventures of very different clones of the same girl;
- Sliding Doors (UK, USA, 1997): fantasy drama about two versions of the heroine’s fate, depending on whether or not she catches the outgoing train;
- Fight Club (USA, Germany, 1999): David Fincher’s acclaimed thriller starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton.
