MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING
A film review by Alex Fung
Copyright 1997 Alex Fung
(TriStar - 1997) Starring Julia Roberts, Dermont Mulroney, Cameron Diaz, Rupert Everett Screenplay by Ronald Bass Produced by Jerry Zucker, Ronald Bass Directed by P.J. Hogan Running time: 105 minutes
***1/2 (out of four stars)
Note: Some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers. Be forewarned.
The teaser trailers for MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING scarsely gave reason for hope - it looked like the sort of goofy, light-hearted comedy than might put Julia Roberts back in the limelight, but little more; I'd frankly rarely seen a trailer place such an emphasis on people falling over for laughs so often. It was then to both my surprise and my delight to find that MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING was such a success - a strong, bouyant romantic-comedy with some decidedly unconventionally quirky comic aspects, featuring a triumphant performance from Ms. Roberts.
The heroine of MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING is Julianne Potter (Julia Roberts), a successful New York restaurant critic, and we open the film with a whimsical revelation to her editor George Downes (Rupert Everett) that years ago, she had made a pact with her dear best friend and ex-lover Michael O'Neal (Dermot Mulroney), a sports writer, that if they both hadn't married by the time they reached 28, they had promised to marry each other. Both Julianne and Michael are both single, of course, and when George inquires about Michael's age, Julianne realizes that he's mere weeks away from his 28th birthday, and is quite distressed when she receives a phone call from Michael later that day. However, she finds herself even more distraught when Michael's call is in regards to his impending marriage to heiress Kimmy Wallace (Cameron Diaz), and when he asks Julianne to fly down to Chicago for the wedding, Julianne suddenly realizes that she loves Michael, and resolves to break up the wedding and steal the groom by any means necessary.
The setup for MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING, then, is a fairly conventional one, and in many ways the film's storyline is formulaic - but only to a certain extent: the film was directed by P.J. Hogan, whose first feature, MURIEL'S WEDDING, had quite an offbeat tone for a traditional uplifting ugly-duckling story, and the same holds true for MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING, which confidently combines traditional romantic-comedy elements with a really eccentric sense of humour. The film is innundated with sly mischievousness which seems clearly the influence of Mr. Hogan. For example, there's a heartfelt, emotional exchange between Julianne and Michael late in the film - with a trio of teenagers, inhaling helium and sounding every bit like Alvin and the Chipmunks, harmonizing in the background. MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING opens with an inspired opening credit sequence which sets the tone for the film, and there are scenes where actors spontaneously burst into song to good comic effect - it could almost be argued that this film is nearly as much of a musical as Woody Allen's EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU; I'd even assert it's a more successful one.
MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING keeps breaking conventionality with its characters as well. In a typical romantic-comedy, Kimmy would be portrayed as a snooty, conniving ice queen, and the audience would be cheering for Julianne to rescue Michael from her grasps; this film is smarter than that - here, Kimmy is sweet, sincere, and innocent; Julianne even admits at one point that had she not resolved to utterly destroy Kimmy's life, she'd actually like her too. The George character is almost a staple of recent film - the homosexual male friend of the heroine who acts as a confidant and provides the guiding voice of reason - but in MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING, he gets to have a playful, mischievous and charming personality. Throughout the film, the formulaisms one often sees is romantic-comedy are given little twists, and the result is a film which is compelling all the way to its somewhat unorthodox conclusion. There is a lot of smart writing in the well-paced screenplay by Ronald Bass; we're given four interesting, vivid, and likeable characters, with some good dialogue and some genuinely charming and touching moments.
MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING marks a strong career rebound for Julia Roberts, who turns in a top-notch, confident and reassured performance as Julianne. This isn't the sort of role one usually associates with Ms. Roberts - the Julianne character's neurotic, fumbling characteristics are more in line with a Meg Ryan role - but Ms. Roberts works wonderfully in the film and demonstrates her aptitude at comedy here, remaining compelling and empathetic to the audience, if not entirely sympathetic, even when her deeds done to destroy the wedding plans of her best friend are less than honourable.
Even better than Ms. Roberts though is Cameron Diaz, who turns in a shining performance in MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDDING. With a smile which lights up the screen, she effectively conveys Kimmy's insecurity and utter sweetness in an endearing manner, and never hits a false note in the film. She even sings - I won't soon forget her charming serenade of "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself".
Rupert Everett is given a very juicy role as George, and he makes the most of it with a hilarious turn which makes his character perhaps the most vivid and most memorable in the film. His George is a bit of a devilish rogue, entirely affable, and Mr. Everett's performance is a delight to watch; he's clearly having fun, and his joy is infectuous.
Dermot Mulroney is adequate in a thankless role - unlike the other characters in the film, he's not given a lot to do, but there is a genuine onscreen chemistry between Ms. Roberts and Mr. Mulroney, and consequently the longstanding friendship between his Michael character and the Julianne character always seemed completely authentic.
When Julia Roberts' lustre began to fade, and she was usurped from her title as "America's Sweetheart" by Sandra Bullock, I thought it was a canny career move on her part to take supporting roles in prestige projects like MICHAEL COLLINS and EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU to raise her profile. While that didn't quite work out, it's near-certain that her successful return to the genre which made her a big star back in 1990, the romantic-comedy, will once again raise her ante in the Hollywood game. MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING marks a return to form for Ms. Roberts, and cements P.J. Hogan's reputation as a skilled director of comedy.
- Alex Fung
email: aw220@freenet.carleton.ca
web : http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/
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