The Next Best Thing (2000)

The Next Best Thing casts Madonna as a free spirited soul (some stretch of casting there) who has a one night stand with an old friend and soul mate Rupert Everett. But that's not likely to happen too often as Everett is a gay man with whom she confides her innermost.I think Everett's character must have been based on Roddy McDowall who was a confidante to many of the rich and glamorous and unlike that other gay man who did that as well, Truman Capote, McDowall never wrote any tell all memoirs.It rarely happens in real life, but a blessed event came from that mating and Madonna and Everett decide to move in together, not marry, but raise the child as a mother and father with each leading their separate lives. It actually does work for a while.Madonna really gets into the mother role and Everett's a great father figure. But he never forgets his social life with friends and lovers like Neil Patrick Harris and Mark Valley.But then Madonna meets Benjamin Bratt who wants to get married and that puts an end to the arrangements.The Next Best Thing while a sincere effort in its own way of showing the complicated problems that gays and lesbians have with the raising of children, their own children at that, it sadly degenerates into the kind of soap opera that one finds on the Lifetime Channel. It's not a horrible film, just will never be on anyone's ten best list.

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.

With a beautiful Madonna and gorgeous Rupert, "The next best thing" is just a drama. A drama with the best intentions. But with a plot that down and down until a obvious thing. So,"The next best thing" is not the "best" like they say.The story is about a girl with his best gay friend. One night, with all the drink you can imagine... the next best thing born. Sincerely, i think the plot could be better, but that don't means the story is bad. The movie talk about about the new couples and families and how is better handling the things with tranquility. Of course you can be with other person and be good parents and have, at same time, good l life and sexual life. But you must have carefully with the children. For that reason "The next best thing" is not bad. Because, in some way, makes us reflecting about the new life of XXI century. Oh Kay, maybe is not the "best thing", but after all is a "good thing".*Sorry for the mistakes... well, if there any

It's important to note that when I decided to watch this movie for the first and only time, I had high expectations. Although Madonna is usually always bashed by one or all critics in every movie she's done, but often, what critics think, and what I think of a movie are usually on different ends of the spectrum. I wish I could say the same for this "Movie" The concept was a unique one, which helped drive my curiosity enough to want to see this film: A Woman and her Gay Best friend get drunk one night, do what a drunk couple does best, she gets pregnant, and a dramatic comedy unfolds with the ordeals faced by a gay man and his baby mama. Unfortunately, between the movie's script (both the story itself and the writing) mixed with a wide variety of Actors, ranging from not that good to not that bad make for a very uncomfortable journey into an inter-sexual family. All goes well until Abbie (Madonna) meets Ben Cooper (Benjamin Bratt.) As Abbie and Ben decide to move their relationship to next level along with Abbie's son, Robert (Rupert Everett) is forced out of the picture. determined not to let Abbie's sudden backstabbing lightly, the former friends engage in an ugly court battle over their son. As the plot fumbles along, the story gets uncomfortable and tediously strenuous, and leaves the viewer confused and unfulfilled.It's no surprise that Rupert Everett gives the best performance in the movie- and no surprise that Madonna doesn't. Although playing a yoga instructor, single mother, and best friend to Rupert Everett ( which at the time was very coincidentally what Madonna was - into yoga, a single mother,and best friend to Rupert Everett)- the role hardly comes naturally and often seems forced and unconvincing. Unfortunately it's not her worst acting, but not her best. Not worth a full viewing.