The Next Best Thing

2000

Action / Comedy / Drama / Romance

9
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 19% · 94 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 35% · 10K ratings
IMDb Rating 4.7/10 10 11960 12K

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Plot summary

A comedy-drama about best friends - one a straight woman, Abbie, the other a gay man, Robert - who decide to have a child together. Five years later, Abbie falls in love with a straight man and wants to move away with her and Robert's little boy Sam, and a nasty custody battle ensues.

Top cast

Jack Betts as Vernon
Benjamin Bratt as Ben Cooper
Madonna as Abbie Reynolds
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
985.72 MB
1280*694
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles pt  
23.976 fps
1 hr 47 min
Seeds 1
1.98 GB
1920*1040
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles pt  
23.976 fps
1 hr 47 min
Seeds 6

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by LittleOracle

She still can't act

I had high hopes for this -- really, I did. I thought it would be a sweet, charming and tugging-at-the-heartstrings comedy. But I was TOO hopeful.Story in one sentence: two best friends (one gay, one straight) end up in bed together, have a son, raise him together, everything hunky-dory until she wants to marry someone else and the little family gets screwed up.Let's talk about what's the worst: the script, hands down. Everything is so spliced in or cut out it's just terrible. The transitions are so choppy, that we barely have enough time to understand the undeveloped characters -- they're just thrown at us and next thing you know, it's years later. It's unrealistic and it's too fictional to really understand or get into. Madonna is suffering from never finding Mr. Right, Rupert is the gay buddy that "somewhat" turns into the bad guy and poor Benjamin is just caught in the middle. We don't know WHO to hate in this movie -- that's pretty much the hard part. Everyone is in the bad guy role, they just don't fit it due to the fact they all need sympathy.As for Madonna, yes, it's obvious she took lessons. The problem would be that she is way too conscious of the camera. Her husband commented once that she needs to let the director direct -- and I think that's a huge problem with her performance. She is just "too beautiful" in this movie. I mean, she's supposed to be sobbing her eyes out and she looks up and is all glistening and pretty. Sorry, but in order for me to believe her I want to see it on her face that she's worried -- you know, red eyes, puffy cheeks, smeared makeup -- the works. Madonna had too much creative control in this and it's obvious. Her expressions don't fit her tone of voice either; she seems to blink consciously and doesn't have much expression -- but hey, close your eyes and listen to her and you'll see that she's making progress.All in all, a good storyline put to a bad script and bad performances. Anyone who tells you this is a great movie is obviously a star-struck Madonna fan.
Reviewed by

Reviewed by timh-9 4 / 10

A true case of the next best thing not being the real thing

What seemed like a good idea at the time ends up being quite a disappointment on the big screen. Apart from a script that's heavy-laden with banal lines, too many ideas and moods, and a particularly wooden performance from Madonna (she only really shines a few times, it's a continuity-obsessed viewer's nightmare. At one time, Rupert tells us it's the 21st Century (how modern), yet a few scenes later, he's at a gravesite of a recently departed person, and the headstone says 1953 - 1992! Then, there's no apparent ageing or fashion changes in six years, and Madonna's comparing her breasts in 1999 to what they were in 1989! It's a dog's breakfast really. And the film does not satisfactorily address the whole gay parent issue. It tries to, but it keeps shying away from the more sensitive issues (such as explaining to Sam the son that his dad is gay, and why faggot is not a good term to describe him). And as for the totally unbelievable developments and the ridiculous supermarket scene, well, the less said the better. Abbie may have been looking for the next best thing, and she certainly got it with this film, a less successful copy of The Object of My Affection, which was, while still cheesy, had at least some credibility.

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