MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING
A film review by Cat Stanton
Copyright 1997 Cat Stanton
P.J. Hogan, the director of MURIEL'S WEDDING, gives us yet another forced and somewhat embarrassing flick, but this time it has some big names behind it. MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING is definitely a top contender for the Puff Pastry award of summer movies.
This movie would have been much more enjoyable without all of the bad, painfully staged singing numbers the audience is forced to endure from the opening credits to the ending scene. I've never almost walked out on a movie before the opening credits stopped rolling, but because of a strong aversion to Pepto Bismol pink sets and bad lip-synching, I nearly did in this movie. I'm glad I stayed. Well, sort of.
>From the nonsensical opening number, the movie jarringly cuts to the chase, setting up the premise for the entire story with only a dozen sentences. Don't get in line for popcorn early, lest you miss the whole background story. But don't be fooled by the quick setup, the movie comes to a standstill... right about the time you get to the karaoke bar scene.
The premise is simple. Julianne (Julia Roberts) is the slim size 6 food critic. How does she stay size six? Well apparently she does so by taking a single bite of her meal, reciting two words to the server about what she's going to say about it in her write up, and then recounting her neuroses to her editor instead of eating the rest of her dinner. Her career is merely a convenient set up and isn't very believable. Switch her creme brulee/jell-o metaphor towards the end of the movie for Fifi the pedigreed poodle and Benji the lovable mutt, and she could have been a dog trainer.
But I digress. Julianne the food critic has spent the last nine years in troublesome relationships after breaking up with Michael (Dermot Mulroney), who has become her best friend since their romance. Long ago in Arizona they made a pact that they would marry each other if they were still alone at 28. When Michael calls her, she's certain he wants to marry her finally, right up until she finds out he's going to marry another woman in four days.
Julianne drops everything, flies to Chicago, and hilarity ensues. Well, that's what we'd hoped for. More accurately, a mild undercurrent of amusement peppered with some painfully embarrassing scenes ensues.
In Chicago, we meet Michael's fiancee Kimmy (Cameron Diaz). Kimmy is "annoyingly perfect" (as Julianne often says in the film). In short, Kimmy is an astonishingly beautiful, although sometimes slightly psychotic looking, rich doormat with bad driving habits.
>From the start, Julianne sets out to destroy the relationship. In doing so, however, I found her character became confused and muddled. She wasn't exactly likeable, yet she wasn't the woman you'd love to hate either. She was the most ineffectual protagonist I've seen in a long time. She didn't seem to have any chemistry with Michael either, so I wasn't really rooting for her cause.
In one telltale scene, she tries to convince Kimmy that Michael's job isn't what's best for the marriage, since it requires he move around constantly and Kimmy will have to give up a college degree and a stable career to follow him. She was all but telling Kimmy flat out, "Hey you shouldn't cater to his every whim, have him think of your life once in awhile" but when Kimmy politely brought up having him work for her father, his outburst was immediate and hurtful.
Michael's character was lukewarm and Mulroney's scenes consisted mostly of dumb stares with his mouth half open. Admittedly, these were usually during the singing portions of the movie, where most of us were staring dumbfounded at the screen waiting for the plot to start back up. But how can you care who gets the guy when in fact, you're hoping neither of them ends up with a loser like him? A love triangle does not work when the crux of the triangle is dull and unlikeable.
There were some bright spots in this film, believe it or not. First and foremost, we got to see another side to Julia Roberts. She does an excellent job inserting physical humor into the story as the slightly klutzy Julianne. Her timing really hit the mark and her best chemistry was with the gay character in the film, her "local" best friend and editor, George (Rupert Everett).
George was my favorite character, by far. It's a shame he shows up all too rarely in the film. Sympathetic, classy and honest, he actually upstaged most of the top-billed actors. His friendship with Julianne is evident and the only believable relationship in the movie. Everett did an excellent job with his script and mannerisms.
MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING has a lot more misses than hits, and while it was labelled a "chick flick" by my boyfriend, I found it quite painful and dull to watch myself.
** - Rent just in case you get bored doing housework.
Scores: **** = Go! See it early. See it often. Set a record. *** = Rent for a cozy little evening at home. ** = Rent just in case you get bored doing housework. * = View at your own risk.
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