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rebekahscheys
Reviews
My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)
Julianne discovers that she is in love with her best friend on the day he tells her that he is engaged to marry someone else.
Although it is perhaps most well-known for its unconventional ending, My Best Friend's Wedding should be known, for its perfect blend of romance and comedy, as the definitive rom-com. Julianne Potter (Roberts) is a New York food critic, who, after receiving a mysterious voicemail from her former lover and long-time best friend, Michael (Dermot Mulroney), realizes her affection for him. Unfortunately for her, upon returning Michael's call, Julianne learns that the new-found man of her dreams has himself met someone and intends to marry her within four days.
Unaware of Julianne's recently acquired feelings for him, Michael insists that she join the wedding party in Chicago and support him in his hour of need. After some goading from her other best friend, George (Rupert Everett), Julianne decides to go in the hope of breaking up the couple before they can say their "I dos." The ensuing madness is both enchanting and hilarious, as Julianne finds herself being continually and innocuously bested by Michael's fiancé, Kimmy (Cameron Diaz), resulting in a series of hilariously irate phone calls to George, who always happens to field them at the worst possible times (i.e. his entire family gets an earful from the answering machine over dinner.)
Diaz and Roberts are perfect comedic matches for one another as the innocently saccharine fiancé and the plotting best friend, and Mulroney is so suave and sexy as "the man of our dreams" (as Roberts puts it) that it's incredible more of the film's female population aren't fighting for his affection. Everett is equally well cast in the role of George, the gay best friend who plays it straight at one point for Julianne's sake. His scenes provide some of the film's funniest moments, particularly when George teasingly embarrasses Julianne in front of the rest of the wedding party by launching into his rendition of "I'll Say a Little Prayer (For You)."
Aside from just its comedy, which is considerable, and its romance, which is unorthodox, "My Best Friend's Wedding" succeeds because its characters are fully-formed, dimensional beings who live in a very real world. Julianne, with all of her charm and charisma, is really just a desperate, wavering soul who fears what might happen if everyone finds happiness besides her. Kimmy, instead of being flat and static (as the "other" girl is wont to be in a romantic comedy), is a likable and endearing character that the audience can empathize with. Michael, however, is perhaps the most fascinating character of them all.
Michael is both the perfect best friend- teasing and adoring, while never crossing the line- and the perfect boyfriend. He balances his affection for both of the women in his life and draws his own line regarding the ways in which he can love each of them. His decisions and character both break the traditional mold of a romantic comedy's "dream guy" by injecting a measure of reality and at the same time uphold it, by demonstrating that there is a way in which a strong, selfless, and moral man can exist without becoming a mere fantasy.
The Wedding Planner (2001)
A wedding planner with no relationship of her own is doubtful about love's existence, until she meets Steve.
Jennifer Lopez is right at home playing the strong, intelligent professional, Mary, and despite her inability to properly tell a joke ("What, you think Kissinger wrote his own stuff?) or properly communicate strong emotion (like despair), she does well in the cutesy moments. Matthew McConaughey is charming as the conflicted Steve, and expertly plays both his character's dry, cynical side and his boyish joyfulness. The two play against one another well, unlike the boring Fran, whose idea of the perfect wedding song is Olivia Newton-John's "I Honestly Love You," and who can't seem to find one legitimate reason why she wants to marry Steve in the first place.
As there are no other true funny characters, Massimo is perhaps intended to provide the film's comic relief, but his "humor" flows less from witty screen writing and masterful delivery and more from the director's mistaken assumption that every line a character delivers in broken English must be funny. Overall, "The Wedding Planner" does a good job of fulfilling audience expectations and creating characters that, while likable, are simply rom-com archetypes. The true romantic, unsatisfied with paltry declarations of love and empty representations of it, hopes for a bit more.
Read my full review here: thecorrelationfilmblog.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/my-best-friends- weddingthe-wedding-planner/