The Next Best Thing [DVD] [2000]

Let me start by saying that I think it's unfair of anyone to say that Madonna cannot act. We've all seen Evita, and as much as it was a dangerous gamble re-creating a musical on screen, Madonna shone in that - and has the Golden Globe to prove it. Yet we still go on about how terrible an actress she is. The trouble with someone as successful as Madonna, and as creative and fortunate as Madonna, is that when she does something that doesn't quite match the standard to which we expect it is BIG news! Finally, she's not as good as everyone is saying. She isn't the Genius everyone says she is. Having this ammunition is great for detractors and people who don't really like Madonna. It always gets raked up.

However, Madonna doesn't shine so much in this film. What is apparent from time to time in this film is her comic timing (something which I think was visibly impressive, yet totally inappropriate in Swept Away) which is actually quite good. Personally I'd like to see Madonna in a proper good rom-com - something like My Best Friends Wedding could be perfect for her to turn her hand to - let's not forget that even an Oscar-winning actress like Julia Roberts has played her fair share of non-credible yet totally fabulous roles. Madonna, like with her music, wants to be the best. She wants adoration, recognition, appreciation (the Kabbalah seriously hasn't affected her appetite and ambition in that sense) and perhaps she won't actually find it in acting.

With this in mind, she could still be a good actress, starring in fun, up-beat films that people like.... Evita was a bolt of lightening, and we all know it never strikes twice. As much as I love seeing what Madonna does on screen, I would have preferred Evita to either come in 10 years time, or have been her swansong of the Movie World.

This is simply a bad script. It could stand to be properly re-written, enhanced, given serious budget, production and been a longer, more in-depth film. We barely touch on some of the emotional content available, let alone the hideously rushed story. The film's first half is an extravagant, exciting and funny look at a relationship that is all to often overlooked - the gay man and his straight, female best friend - a movie version of Will & Grace, which I think EVERYONE loves! But it all too quickly descends into drama and pain, and never really comes back from that, although the ending shows that things may get better, even though no one really wins. How did it all get so bad? So bitchy? So QUICKLY!!! I could stand to watch more of these characters (Lynn Redgrave is fabulous as Everett's Landscaper's mother, and his son, Sam, played by Malcolm Stumpf is a dream) if we were able to just invest a bit more in them. The acting was okay from the two leads, and I have to say that I only really cringed once, and that was at Everett, who in an emotional scene after a funeral displays some of the worst acting I have EVER seen. Madonna, when not much is expected from her, is quite good.

I agree that this film could have been lots better, and with this in mind, so could most of Madonna's movie ventures. She has a real talent in the movie world. The talent being to pick the wrong movies to act in!!! Both of the leads should stick to comedy, romance and music as their movie genres, and leave the serious stuff to those who know what to do with it.

After all, Emma Bunton will never be Madonna, so how can Madonna expect to be Meryl Streep? Read more ›

Approaching this as a social concern issue, at different parts of the film I would have different responses. Certain by the end of the film, as the child had come to recognise Robert as 'dad', it would only do harm to the child to break this relationship. However, the question of whether there is a realistic prospect of even the best of friends living together in such a manner as Abbie and Robert, when both are likely (and in fact in the movie, did, albeit rather perfunctorially until the end) to want to continue to have intimate adult relationships before long, no matter how much they subordinate these desires in consideration of the child. It is a family arrangement almost certainly doomed to failure, particularly given Abbie's history of not being able to achieve a successful, sustained relationship.

With regard to the film as itself, Rupert Everett is the saving grace of the film. Madonna is not, I think, as bad as many people think, in this film. She does a good and credible job. But her character lacked a multi-dimensionality that the script tried to hide by interjecting diversions (the yoga, the unconventional household arrangement, etc. -- these things are intended to give more 'character' to the Madonna's character, or, like a magician's assistant, divert your attention from the fact there's not much substance there). Everett's character is only somewhat more fleshed out, but only in one real direction.

The subplots are, alas, unsuccessful -- we don't get enough detail or enough emotion.... Who is this person who died at the beginning? Beyond knowing his family didn't like him until he was dead, and knowing that high liturgical funerals are not to his liking, we don't know much. Yet this is, I believe, supposed to be a critical issue in the film--acceptance of varying styles of families, and the problems that arise from their lack of legal standing.

I applaud movies like this that try to combat the various forms of prejudice out there. As non-traditional families become more the norm than the exception, a greater understanding of the people in those relationships is very important. I just wish for better vehicles than this, that have more believable characters (and more fully-human characters) and more credible situations.

Overall, I enjoyed the film, and I am a sucker for a happy ending. But, is it happy? When will the relationship with Abbie's husband cease to work out? Will Robert as a single father ever form a successful relationship? Are they still doomed to failure? I doubt a sequel will be produced to answer these questions. Read more ›