The Next Best Thing (2000)

How sad is this?

A lot of fun.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Firm-bodied California yoga teacher Madonna (as Abbie Reynolds) suffers the end of a relationship, which is sad because she is getting older and wants to have a baby. Her gay landscaper pal Rupert Everett (as Robert Whittaker) suggests Madonna become a single mom through anonymous fertilization, but she wants a love child. Being best friends, they have too much to drink one night and copulate. Madonna learns she is pregnant. She and Mr. Everett decide to live together and raise their son, who very quickly grows into Malcolm Stumpf (as Sam)...All goes well until Madonna attracts reluctant yoga student Benjamin Bratt (as Ben Cooper). Now a foursome, the cast has a problem because Mr. Bratt, a self-described workaholic, has to move east for a better job position. He could live luxuriously as a California yoga teacher, but whatever... This well-intentioned story, unfortunately the last film directed by John Schlesinger, is more concerned with how to present a seemingly self-absorbed star than it is with filmmaking. Everett should have taken the kid and moved in with Neil Patrick Harris (as David).**** The Next Best Thing (3/3/00) John Schlesinger ~ Madonna, Rupert Everett, Benjamin Bratt, Malcolm Stumpf

Mercilessly condemned by viewers and professional critics, this comedy-drama is not very good; but I have seen films that are a lot worse. A young woman named Abbie (Madonna), who is straight, has a one-night fling with her best friend Robert (Rupert Everett), who is gay. The result is that she gets pregnant. Abbie and Robert agree to raise the child together; but complications ensue when Abbie falls in love with someone else.The first part of the film is lighthearted, and plays like a music video, with some good songs, like "Steppin' Out With My Baby". By the time we get into the second half, however, the lightheartedness has morphed into bitterness and controversy, a change in tone that is jarringly out of sync with earlier sequences.But an even bigger problem is the casting of the two leads, and the Robert character. Madonna tries hard to be a convincing Abbie; her performance isn't bad, really it isn't; she's just a little too wooden. But her celebrity persona as a musical pop star overwhelms all effort to make her seem like some average homebody. As a result, I would have preferred another actress.I did not care for Robert at all, with his exaggerated attempts at witty banter and his fluttering about, typical gay stereotyped behavior, vain and self-absorbed. Later, he becomes rigid in his ability to compromise, a character contrivance that only serves to advance the film's plot. And then Rupert Everett, with his hammy overacting, makes the already flamboyant Robert character almost unendurable. Everett's British accent in a Southern California setting is totally out of place. Almost any other actor of comparable age could have rendered a less painful performance.What makes the film bearable is some good music, including Don McClean's old song "American Pie", and a nifty performance by Malcolm Stumpf as the child, a performance that was thankfully lacking in precocious behavior so often seen in child characters.If they had reworked the script in such a way as to have a more consistent storyline, toned down the Robert character, and chosen different performers for the two lead roles, "The Next Best Thing" might have been better received. As is, the film is interesting mainly for its music, and as a textbook case of what can go wrong when script and casting mistakes are not corrected.

Before even seeing the movie I was sure that I was going to love it. It featured one of my most favorite entertainers, Madonna, and an amazing talents of Rupert Everett. Unfortunately the only thing I could do from turn it off was that I had to see the end. There are so many holes and empty dialog's. It is one misgiving after another. You have the feeling that you are watching this feel good and enlightening relationship when you are robbed from it out of any feeling that could be in the same ball park as good. I understand that real life has its twists and turns but to market a movie as one thing and take it to a entirely new level of what this turned into was a complete other story. This movie was, no is mean spirited and awful. You could feel the pain and anguish that Rupert's character felt and that was amazing acting but the story was just so badly written and carried out with Madonna and Ben Bratt. It is a sore to watch and expect anger to come with watching it. I think that perhaps Madonna should just stick to the stage and not to the big screen. And Ben Bratt one day you'll pick a winner when it comes to movie projects (beside Miss Congenality-it's funny!).

I really like this movie... I cried every time I watch it. And how can you do this with your body madonna? I have to start on yoga too. Love when she is on the mirror with. 26 years old... 36 years old... so lovely.I would like to ask you about the magnificent dress she wears , I want the same for me!!!Could someone please tell who's black and white madonna's dress in this movie? I really think is amazing!!!! you know the one she wears when they are in the house where he works because the people who lives in the house is on trip!well, thank you!!!!!