Product: The Next Best Thing (2000)
Rating: 1.0
The Next Best Thing is Avoiding This Film...
...the best would be if it was never made as it was.Thestory idea is silly. ...Rupert Everett plays a very stereotypicalgay man and Madonna plays a self-absorbed yoga teacher. Their actingis mediocre since the material they are working with is terrible.When the woman's first boyfriend in the movie dumps her, he also heapston of praise on her which sounds more like character description in aHarlequin novel.Another poor facet of the writing is the use ofneedless characters. What did Neal Patrick Harris' character even addto the film? What of the man who died? It seemed as if the dead manwas only mentioned so the characters would have an excuse to sing, asMadonna's character called it, "Don McLean's 'AmericanPie'," which seems as silly as refering to a song as "PaulMcCartney's 'Yesterday'."Well, okay, Rupert's acting isterrible due to the writing. With Madonna, we also get to hear thatannoying ever-changing fake Brit accent in the film.There were somegood things about this film. Madonna contributed a wonderful originalsong, "Time Stood Still." The cinematography was alsostrong. So I guess if one could mute the film except for the onesong, it'd be a decent film.It's hard to believe that the directorwas ever an Oscar contender by looking at this film atrocity.As forthe DVD itself, I wasn't able to get the trailers to work on one of myDVD players. The featurette gives more praise to the film than anactual "making-of" would have done, tho.If you're adie-hard Madonna fan, you'll probaby want this movie, but it is amongher worst (Considering that list includes "Foor Rooms" and"Shanghai Surprise" that is no easy feat). How RupertEverett could be a part of this is beyond me. But overall, it's a sadrevelation of just how far director John Schlesinger fell.