Product: The Next Best Thing (2000)
Rating: 3.0
An OK Movie Probably Worth Watching
The Next Best Thing when it came out in the earlier part of the year 2000 was a movie that was torn by critics and that flopped at the box office maybe since it didn't seem "appealing enough" for some audiences who don't like Madonna or Rupert Everett. The movie basically begins with you getting to see the characters of Abbie Reynolds (Madonna) and Robert (Rupert Everett) and basically what they do for a living. Abbie is a yoga instructor who in the beginning you watch about how she believes she can't find a man that is good enough for her. Robert plays a gay architect who feels he has the same problem as Abbie. One night they basically get drunk and in the midst Robert "accidentally" impregnates Abbie. The rest is the second half of the film and you get to see the child growing up and how Abbie for the first time finds a guy who she feels is the right person for her. The rest of the movie is about how she and her new boyfriend Ben (Benjamin Bratt) fall in love and plan to move out of state while Robert is upset that his child is going to be away from him. I'll just leave it from there so not to give away what happens at the end of the film. The movie is in my opinion a lot better than the harsh reviews critics gave it. Madonna isn't one of our leading actresses but her performance isn't bad at all and neither is Rupert's. The movie does have scenes that may seem out of place and sometimes the screenplay can be wrong for some scenes but over all the movie wasn't excellent or bad, it was just plain good.The DVD has three or four goodies as well. For sound, you get the usual 2-channel Dolby surround or Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound (the better one of the two). You also get French as well in Dolby 2-channel format. As usual, their are your subtitles in French and English. Lastly, here are the "real" special features. There first is the trailer which is around 3 mintues and shows the film on it's comedy side and is nice to watch for right before you watch the film itself. Then their is a featurette on the movie which shows John Schlesinger (the director), Madonna, Rupert Everret, and Benjamin Bratt talking about the film and their favorite scenes and what you'd typically see in a featurette. My advice for those like me who buy the DVD when never seeing the movie before is to wait to see the featurette once you already saw the movie cause at the end of the feature the end of the film is given away. It's enjoyable and lasts around 15 minutes. Lastly, for every Madonna fan with a DVD player, you get the music video for "American Pie". This was great for fans like me due to how I have previous collections of her music videos on DVD and also have her new "Music" DVD. If you liked the film then you should consider buying it and if you are a Madonna fan than you should.