Product: The Next Best Thing (2000)
Rating: 1.0
Disappointment on Wheels
This is a hateful, hateful movie...I don't think Madonna is a terrible actress - she'll never be "a movie star", but she isn't that bad (minus some occasional over-acting)...and she isn't bad in this movie...she is not the one who ruined it. It's the storyline that is horrible...I started watching this movie, not expecting much. About half way through the film, so far, so good - it held my interest and I was entertained. Then it seems as though the writers had no idea where to take this movie, and it went downhill fast..We all know the plot - Abbie gets pregnant by her best friend, a homosexual man (Rupert Everett), and they decide to raise the child together. Enter Benjamin Bratt, who wants to marry Abbie and move to New York. Rupert doesn't want his son to live on the other side of the country, and a nasty custody battle ensues....ok, I thought Madonna's character and Rupert's character were supposed to be the bestest of buddies...I thought that was the basis of the film...who better to raise a child than 2 great friends til the end??? The degree to which these 2 slam each other in the custody suit is ridiculous and depressing. So much for being best friends....Their treatment of each other pretty much invalidated the entire movie for me. Just plain awful.