The Next Best Thing

2000 "Best friends make the best mistakes"
4.7| 1h48m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 03 March 2000 Released
Producted By: Paramount
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
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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.

Genre

Drama, Comedy, Romance

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Director

John Schlesinger

Production Companies

Paramount

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The Next Best Thing Audience Reviews

Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.
Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.
BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay
Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.
wes-connors Firm-bodied California yoga teacher Madonna (as Abbie Reynolds) suffers the end of a relationship, which is sad because she is getting older and wants to have a baby. Her gay landscaper pal Rupert Everett (as Robert Whittaker) suggests Madonna become a single mom through anonymous fertilization, but she wants a love child. Being best friends, they have too much to drink one night and copulate. Madonna learns she is pregnant. She and Mr. Everett decide to live together and raise their son, who very quickly grows into Malcolm Stumpf (as Sam)...All goes well until Madonna attracts reluctant yoga student Benjamin Bratt (as Ben Cooper). Now a foursome, the cast has a problem because Mr. Bratt, a self-described workaholic, has to move east for a better job position. He could live luxuriously as a California yoga teacher, but whatever... This well-intentioned story, unfortunately the last film directed by John Schlesinger, is more concerned with how to present a seemingly self-absorbed star than it is with filmmaking. Everett should have taken the kid and moved in with Neil Patrick Harris (as David).**** The Next Best Thing (3/3/00) John Schlesinger ~ Madonna, Rupert Everett, Benjamin Bratt, Malcolm Stumpf
bkoganbing 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.
Cristian 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
Agnelin "The next best thing" is a fine, entertaining film that combines genuinely funny parts with a mild, non-patronizing social commentary on gay rights and the new family types that are becoming more and more common nowadays. It asks for a great exercise of suspension of disbelief, since some of the behaviours and coincidences shown in it are hard to believe, but this didn't hurt my enjoyment of this film and the good opinion I have of it.Madonna stars as Abby, who has just called it quits with her latest boyfriend and has a romantic encounter with her best, gay friend, Robert, as a result of which she falls pregnant, and they become Sam's parents, two best friends living under the same roof with their child. The perfect family, until things begin to get a little complicated...The movie starts as a comedy with some elements of romance, but it isn't as predictable as it might appear, and it contains some delightful twists. Madonna does a decent job as the main character, and she composes a quite likable single mom.The weakest side of the film is, in my opinion, the ending, that comes a little too abruptly -I felt that some things weren't properly explained. However, I would recommend the film to anyone who wishes to sit and enjoy an above average comedic drama with nice characters.