The Next Best Thing
by John Schlesinger
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DVD details
Actor: Benjamin Bratt, Illeana Douglas, Madonna, Michael Vartan, Rupert EverettDirector: John Schlesinger
Producer: Gary Lucchesi
Producer: Leslie Dixon
Producer: Lewis Manilow
Producer: Linne Radmin
Producer: Marcus Viscidi
Producer: Meredith Zamsky
Writer: Tom Ropelewski
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 108 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-08-29
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Paramount
DVD Reviews of The Next Best Thing
DVD Review: hate this movie...
Summary: 1 Stars
i don't like this movie at all. the plot is just dumb and really bad. the soundtrack is good though. i can't say that madonna is one of the best actress out there but she has a few, good decent films. if you're a fan, just skip this one.DVD Review: is it a surprise that Madonna ruined a film?
Summary: 1 Stars
Just god awful!!!! Madonna cannot act worth anything!!!! She can barely make decent albums now much less act. You know Rubert only did this as a favor!!! Please!!!!!! Just sad!!!! Not even worth buying if it were 99 cents.DVD Review: The Next best Thing-to do is skip the film!
Summary: 2 Stars
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....
DVD Review: Really just so-so
Summary: 2 Stars
I've watched this movie twice, and I am not sure I will watch it again.
First of all, I'm one who had never had anything bad to say about Madonna's acting, but here she's really bad. She gets better and the movie progresses, it's almost distracting, because she's supposed to be the center of the attention.
Rupert Everett is fine, he looks dashing of course, like Benjamin Bratt.
But then, the movie itself is really badly done. They had the locations, the sets, and yet it's just not at all good and almost boring at times, not to mention the familiar places we've been at before and the really annoying court scenes. Just how many times do we have to see attorneys trashing innocent people?
Honestly, there is nothing new in this movie to make it worth watching more than once to convince yourself how not good it is.
DVD Review: 5 Stars! Thought-provoking and Deep
Summary: 5 Stars
Finally, a film that is much less cynical than most love stories I've seen. Forgiveness is a rare lesson taught in Hollywood, much less TOLERANCE. The Director/Writer both illustrated an idea-- Love is what people need, not conventionality or normalcy. The parts of Rupert's grandparents show a contrast in accepting their son's lifestyle. My favorite character was the grandmother, but Madonna did her best work as well. 5 Stars for The Next Best Thing!
Description of The Next Best Thing
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 The Next Best Thing 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.Lazily directed by Oscar-winner John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy) with an eye towards his actors' muscle tone rather than characterizations (even the kid does yoga), the faults in The Next Best Thing 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 The Next Best Thing certainly isn't it. --Mark Englehart
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