Product: The Next Best Thing (2000)
Rating: 3.0
not bad but could have been better
Forget about diamonds. `The Next Best Thing' is dedicated to the proposition that a gay man is really a girl's best friend. But, man, can that make life complicated! Madonna stars as Abbie, a Southern California yoga instructor who just can't seem to find that certain someone to provide her with marriage and a child but who, at the same time, hears her biological clock ticking ominously down. Rupert Everett plays Robert, her gay best friend, whom Abbie leans upon for support in times of grave romantic crisis - which seems to be just about her normal state of affairs. One night the two get a little too drunk and frisky and end up consummating their friendship, an act that leads to Abbie's pregnancy and a decision between the two to move in together and raise the child as mother and father but not husband and wife. All goes fairly well for six years or so until Abbie falls in love with a young New York executive who wants to marry her and move the three of them away from Los Angeles and the man Sammy thinks of as his father. This leads to a complex court battle between the principals as the suddenly antagonistic best friends struggle over custody of their child.In this day and age when less traditional relationships and families abound in our society, credit `The Next Best Thing' with at least trying to come to terms with some of the unintended and unforeseen consequences that result when well-meaning people wind up in overly complicated situations. We see that Abbie obviously has strong feelings for this man she knows she can never have, while Robert feels inexplicable stirrings of jealousy when Abbie begins to develop an interest in her new beau. We also see the difficulties faced by little Sammy as he begins to grow up and be questioned by his little friends about the unconventional relationship of his parents. (However, this interesting theme is dealt with in only the most superficial way before it is conveniently swept under the carpet). As the film examines the setup from its many different angles and perspectives, it attempts to deal fairly with the principal characters involved. No one is made out to be the heavy or the villain, yet, at the same time; all the characters have their moments of unreasonable selfishness. The main problem with `The Next Best Thing,' however, is that it is attempting to address these really serious issues in the context of a lighthearted romantic comedy. As a result, the plotting seems somehow more contrived than it might if it were developed along the lines of a serious social drama. We never really believe any of it, partly because the film seems to spend more of its time displaying and lingering over the truly phenomenal bodies of its three main actors than exploring the depth of their characters. It all seems so surface slick, replete with a too-cozy happy ending done in summary written codas flashed on the screen immediately prior to the closing credits.Madonna and Everett are both physically very attractive performers - a real boon to the 40+ actors set that doesn't seem to get too much work in the movie romance department these days. As an actress, Madonna has certainly come a long way from her truly wretched performances in the early part of her film career. In this film, except when she is called upon to cry - in which case, she is still incredibly unconvincing - she does seem to have a more relaxed presence on the screen than she has had previously. Everett looks as though he would much rather be sinking his teeth into a far meatier role, but, given the material he has to work with, he does a serviceable job. Oddly enough, this film contains a host of secondary characters who pop up so infrequently or disappear entirely with no explanation that one wonders either why they were included in the first place or at what stage between scriptwriting and final editing they lost their way. This sloppiness and the overall timidity and slickness of the film are particularly surprising given the fact that director John Schlesinger was once responsible for such classic edgy works as "Darling" and "Midnight Cowboy" in the 1960's.`The Next Best Thing' has its heart in the right place and its twisting/turning plot structure, built on the complex emotional needs of its character, carries the audience along fairly nicely. We can identify with these people because, although they seem well meaning, they are also way over their heads with the cards life has dealt them. Who among us cannot empathize with that situation? A pity, then, that `The Next Best Thing' didn't provide a bit more serious context in which to explore it.