|
 |
The Next Best Thing
|
by Paramount
Sales Rank: 30804
Price: $19.99
|
|
|
You'd be hard-pressed to find a modern-day couple as impossibly glamorous as Rupert Everett and Madonna; their casting as common folk in the gay-parenting drama <I>The Next Best Thing</I> is just one of the film's myriad problems. (One thing we never needed to see was these two pushing grocery carts in a supermarket. It's just unnatural.) Best friends in sun-dappled L.A. (he's a landscaper, she's a yoga instructor), Abbie (Madonna) and Robert (Everett) fall into an amorous embrace on a fateful Fourth of July after a few too many martinis. Robert's gay, which complicates things; even more complicating is Abbie's confession a few weeks later that she's with child. Six years later, Robert, Abbie, and their son Sam are all living together peacefully and happily--that is, until a hunky investment banker (Benjamin Bratt) starts making eyes at Abbie, throwing their carefully constructed dynamic into disarray. <p> Lazily directed by Oscar-winner John Schlesinger (<I>Midnight Cowboy</I>) with an eye towards his actors' muscle tone rather than characterizations (even the kid does yoga), the faults in <I>The Next Best Thing</I> aren't solely on the shoulders of its miscast stars, but rather the painfully inept screenplay by Tom Ropelewski. With cardboard dialogue that sounds like bad first-draft material--including wailing by Madonna about how she can't find a man (ha!) and a gym-buffed Everett complaining about gay male body image (double ha!)--the movie stumbles from domestic comedy to custody-suit tragedy when it takes a bizarre left turn in the third act. Any statements about new definitions of family are buried underneath these dubious events, which (of course) provide teary courtroom outbursts for both leads. Everett has a quick way with a one-liner, and Madonna is more relaxed than she's ever been in a film, but Schlesinger just tosses them in front of the camera with no help whatsoever; the supporting cast, including Lynn Redgrave, Neil Patrick Harris, and Illeana Douglas, is also left to flounder inexplicably. There's a thoughtful and provocative movie to be made about gay parents, but <I>The Next Best Thing</I> certainly isn't it. <I>--Mark Englehart</I>
Viewer Reviews
I saw this flick on cable while laid up sick during the holidays. This movie was like a bad LIFETIME Channel film for gay men. It's about a gay guy who has a girl for a best friend (shock, there. They complain how they can't find a good man (okay, Madonna/ OK Rupert--I'm not basing the chracters on the peoeple who play them, but, heck, they are both very attractive poeple--I hate when attactive poeple complain about "not finding someone"--could it be it's becuase their shallowness gets in their way cuase they want to find love with their eyes rather than their hearts?)
So, One night, these two "friends" have too much to drink and they sleep together (Yeah, this always happens with Gay Men, too!) She gets pregnant, the two decide to keep the kid. Fast Forward six years, Madonna's character finds a man, wants custody of the kid and Rupert fights for custody, only to find that Madonna lied to Rupert-it's not even his kid-it's from some other guy Madonna was frolicking with when the accidental=gay guy/straight girl sleep together happens. The story is basicly how bitter and selfish poeple can be, no matter if this was between a traditional Mom and Pop story, and how so many children suffer from the action's of adults.
The thing with this movie is---THE BAD ACTING--this Rupert guy is nothing special-just a tall guy that's kinda buff. Madonna's fake Accent (the two's characters are supposed to be from England) is just laughable and the fact that she's a yoga instructor and Rupert is a damn gardener is hysterical in itself--for, yeah, these occupations make oh so much $$$$ for them to live in the big houses they have.
Madonna HAS TO KNOW BY NOW SHE CAN'T ACT--can't she see this thru all the yoga and meditation she does? But, since she released the HARD CANDY cd, I also think she needs to retire from the music scene and just do charity work. Stop making movies, stop working with "hip" hop producers and making garbage music...Reflect and see it would be wrong to become a cariture of yourself....
Back To Top
|
The Next Best Thing
Available from Amazon
|
|
NOTICE: All product prices, availability, and specifications
are subject to verification by their respective retailers.
Copyright © 2009, Dominant Systems Corporation
info@HowlingVideo.com
Privacy Policy
Last Modified : 1-7-2009
|
