MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING
A film review by Ted Prigge
Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Director: P.J. Hogan Writer: Ronald Bass Starring: Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, Cameron Diaz, Rupert Everett, M. Emmet Walsh, Paul Giamatti
With "Batman and Robin" opening the same weekend of this, you'd think this "Julia Roberts comeback for good film" wouldn't stand a chance. Wrong. When people go see it and see it sucks unbelievably much, they'll race to see this comic gem. That's what it is. And I'm not saying that 'cause I saw both of them the same weekend...I saw this one first, man.
Julia's big ice-breaker into the world of mega-celebrity-hood was "Pretty Woman" which was cool at first but kinda lost its glamour and just became a good old three-star film that you can recite. This one may not be recitable, but it's far better.
Julia plays restaurant food critic, Julianne Potter, a highly neurotic, insecure girl who has a nervous breakdown when she realizes that pact she made with her male best friend, Michael (Dermot Mulroney), to get married at 28 if they aren't already, might come up, for her 28th is soon and she just got a message from him saying he NEEDS to talk to her. But it's worse than that - he's getting married in 4 days (why he didn't tell her...). She falls off the bed and decides to go down there and sabotage the marriage and marry Michael since she now realizes she's been in love with him all along.
But her target of sabotage is tough - she's little Miss Perfect with sympathy, a "Kimmy" Wallace (the wonderful Cameron Diaz), who is madly in love with Michael, despite the fact he loves the following: action movies, karaoke bars, etc. Every time she tries to make Michael hate Kimmy, he ends up loving her more. She drags them to a karaoke bar and forces Kimmy (who claims to not be able to carry a tune) to sing. She sucks embarrassingly but soon gets into it and Michael and her make out there in front of Julianne.
The funniest section of the film is when Julianne calls her new best friend, her gay editor, George (the oscar-nomination worthy Rupert Everett), to help her out. She tries to make Michael jealous by saying he's her fiance, but George gets her back by playing it up embarrassingly for her, but later adds to the depth of the film towards the end.
The films is great because it's an evil comedy and it knows it. It asks us to question whether or not we should root for Julianne by making Kimmy a sympathetic person. She's apt to cry and when she does, we hope Julianne doesn't do anything further to destroy their union. But Julia is so likable that this becomes a huge conflict. It's resolved nicely, I think, in an anti-Hollywood way. This film gleefully toys with us by walking right up to the hokey Hollywood line, then making a U-Turn.
All the performances are magnificent. The four leads are all great in their own way and it's tough to say who runs away with the film. It's definitely not Dermot, who's great and all, but not as much as the others. But is it Cameron Diaz, who's perfect in making her perfect yet with flaws and sympathy? Is it Rupert Everett, who's so funny and such a good scene-stealer AND makes the "gay best friend" so much NOT like the typical "gay best friend?" Or is it the top-billed Julia Roberts, who makes neuroticism seem fashionable?
I don't know. Really I don't. It may as well be a three-way tie. But the film as a whole works great. The direction by Aussie director P.J. Harvey ("Muriel's Wedding") is wonderfully clever and even adds some good old Aussie campiness - i.e. the opening credits and the Dionne Warwick sing-along at a lunch scene (led by Rupert).
Overall, this is the thinking man's romantic comedy and a contender for the best of that genre for the decade, along with "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Sleepless in Seatle." So if you saw "Batman and Robin" or don't even want to (it's worth a viewing at least, even if it bites), go see this fantastically wonderful film.
MY RATING (out of 5): ****1/2
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