Review of My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) by Tina C — 25 May 2010

Hollywood movies have always dictated what constitutes model behavior. The Production Code of the 1930s kept husbands from sleeping in the same beds with their wives. Gangsters could live high on the hog, but they had to forfeit their lives in a blaze of gunfire at fade-out. And all movies had to feature heroines and villains. Movies still tell us how we should behave, especially if we want to be considered good. If you want to learn what constitutes appropriate social behavior in a Hollywood movie, consider the characters that receive rewards for good conduct and draw punishment for bad conduct. Lately, Hollywood's moral compass has gyrated. Nowhere has this moral compass gyrated more drastically than in the winsome Julia Roberts' comedy "My Best Friend's Wedding," co-starring Dermot Mulroney and Cameron Diaz. Initially, "My Best Friend's Wedding" appears like just another chick flick, but "Murial's Wedding" director P.J. Hogan tweaks the formula for some innovative results. "My Best Friends' Wedding" easily qualifies as one of Julia's best roles. She plays the wicked wench who wants to steal her best friend Michael O'Neal (Dermot Mulroney of "Young Guns") away for the woman Kimberly Wallace (Cameron Diaz of "The Mask") whom he has vowed to marry.

The premise in "Waiting to Exhale" scenarist Ronald Bass' screenplay is that Michael and Julianne (Julia Roberts of "Mystic Pizza") have agree to marry each other if they have not made a trip to the altar by age twenty-eight. As the deadline approaches, Michael phones up Julianne. He surprises her with the news that he is going to exchange vows with a 20-year old heiress whose father owns the Chicago White Sox baseball team. Julianne is literally floored by this revelation. She has dreamed always that Michael and she will wed. Anyway, Michael also wants to Julianne to fly to Chicago and help him get through the wedding. Afire with incendiary jealousy, Julianne wings her way off to the Windy City fully prepared to fight for the man she loves. Then she encounters Kimberly. Cameron Diaz resembles a peachy Michelle Pfeiffer. She conjures up one of the most giddy, vulnerable, fresh-faced performances in seasons. Kimberly drives like a maniac through traffic. She begs Julianne to fill in for her Maid of Honor who broke her hip while line dancing. Overwhelmed, Julianne agrees.

What the filmmakers cannot salvage in this shallow script, they more than compensate for with their comedy of errors routines and plot twists. In "My Best Friend's Wedding," Julia Roberts resembles poor Wily E. Coyote in the Warner Brothers' "Road Runner" cartoons because everything that she does to sabotage Michael and Kimberly's plans ironically strengthens their love. It's fun to see Julia play the scheming bad girl. Usually, movie stars prefer to play roles that make them look idealized. As the villainess, Julie has more to work with here than if she were the bland heroine. She is the character who goes against the grain. In Hollywood movies, you must go with the grain and embrace status quo values to emerge triumphant. I won't spill the beans about how Julianne tries to wreck the wedding because it is one of the movie's brightest scenes. Roberts delivers another attractive but sympathetic performance. Mulroney seems rather wooden as Michael, while Diaz bubbles with both energy and sincerity. Veteran character actor M. Emmet Walsh of "Blood Simple" sheds his slime ball movie image to impersonate a lovable old uncle type.

British actor Rupert Everett provides the movie's major plot twist; he is cast as Julianne's boss George Downes. George is a gay character! Hollywood movies before "The Bird Cage" usually treated gay characters as lepers. Rupert Everett, however, stands out as the movie's number one scene stealer! Witty, urbane, sartorial, and charismatic, he is neither swishy nor limp-wristed. George is the kind of gay character that Hollywood doesn't classify as queer. The filmmakers emphasize this point when George is presented as the sole character with any common sense in this comedy of errors. Suddenly, gays are winning kudos for acting like heterosexuals! George's advice to Julianne never goes awry, but Julianne does nothing but make one mistake after another. Hogan never lets the frivolity frizzle. "My Best Friend's Wedding" doesn't waste time, and Hogan knows when to toss in some erotic humor, such as the icy statue of David gag. Upbeat musical interludes always punctuate the film at the right moments. Indeed, "My Best Friend's Wedding" may be the most easily sung along with movie of the year. The scene in the karaoke bar and the seafood restaurant ripple with genuinely infectious good spirit.

Shallow but frothy, "My Best Friend's Wedding" emerges as certainly more than an average chick flick. Hollywood has experienced the kind of attitude change that makes "Wedding" look ahead of its time. Rarely do major Hollywood films embrace homosexuals as charitably as "My Best Friend's Wedding." Ultimately, "My Best Friend's Wedding" seems to say that it is okay to be gay, but that nobody has the right to interfere with a marriage that is made in Heaven. Moreover, as financially successful as "My Best Friend's Wedding" has been at the box office, could this mean that gay characters will be lining up as the new sidekicks for straight characters?