Abbie, tired of failed relationships, has a one-night-stand with her gay friend; they agree to raise the resulting baby together.Abbie, tired of failed relationships, has a one-night-stand with her gay friend; they agree to raise the resulting baby together.Abbie, tired of failed relationships, has a one-night-stand with her gay friend; they agree to raise the resulting baby together.
- Awards
- 3 wins & 10 nominations
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaRupert Everett disliked the script and originally turned the role down. Paramount wanted to hire Everett so much that they offered him a producing and writing credit and the right to pick his co-star. Everett picked his longtime friend, Madonna. During production, Everett was fired as producer and co-writer.
- GoofsNear the end of the film, when Robert is talking to Ben across the street of Sam's school, Robert's head keeps changing positions between shots. In one shot he is looking toward Ben and in another shot he is looking at the school, then it goes back to the other shot when hes looking at Ben.
- SoundtracksBoom Boom Ba
Written by Aida Bredou and Skully
Performed by Métisse
Courtesy of Wildstar Records
By Arrangement with Telstar Special Products, Part of the Telstar Entertainment Group
Produced by Magnus Fiennes (uncredited)
Featured review
Madonna does a credible acting job, and the whole film is mostly interesting.
Critics Ebert and Berardinelli often seem like they wrote their reviews at the same time, in the same coat closet. But not "The Next Best Thing" where they came away in opposite camps. And perhaps therein lies the problem with this film. It depends on your predisposition. I can't understand the 12% or so of the clearly BOGUS votes of "1". Those viewers show no ability to analyze and rate a film. The median vote on IMDb of "6" is about right.
It also gets weary hearing every other "user review" slam Madonna's acting. The truth is she has become a fairly good actress, and better than some who are earning good livings at it. Her big problem has been with the roles she has chosen. Given a decent role, and above-average direction (not her husband, Guy Ritchie), she is a fine actress, although she will never challenge Streep or Foster as one of the superb actresses of our time.
In this film, where she apparently has a child by her best friend, a flaming gay guy (real gay Rupert Everett), while they are both drunk, they decide to raise the son togther, until her true love (Ben Bratt) happens along. A custody fight gets ugly, because she wants to move from Calif to NY, then it comes to light that another guy is the biological father all along. Some real issues that sometimes real families have to resolve.
My only real complaint is that Madonna's and Bratt's characters seem to totally gloss over the meeting, courting, and falling in love process. In this film it happens almost instantly with no indication of weeks or months passing, and it comes off as very phony to me. Aside from that, it is a fairly interesting film.
It also gets weary hearing every other "user review" slam Madonna's acting. The truth is she has become a fairly good actress, and better than some who are earning good livings at it. Her big problem has been with the roles she has chosen. Given a decent role, and above-average direction (not her husband, Guy Ritchie), she is a fine actress, although she will never challenge Streep or Foster as one of the superb actresses of our time.
In this film, where she apparently has a child by her best friend, a flaming gay guy (real gay Rupert Everett), while they are both drunk, they decide to raise the son togther, until her true love (Ben Bratt) happens along. A custody fight gets ugly, because she wants to move from Calif to NY, then it comes to light that another guy is the biological father all along. Some real issues that sometimes real families have to resolve.
My only real complaint is that Madonna's and Bratt's characters seem to totally gloss over the meeting, courting, and falling in love process. In this film it happens almost instantly with no indication of weeks or months passing, and it comes off as very phony to me. Aside from that, it is a fairly interesting film.
helpful•21
- TxMike
- Jan 1, 2003
- How long is The Next Best Thing?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $25,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $14,990,582
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $5,870,387
- Mar 5, 2000
- Gross worldwide
- $24,362,772
- Runtime1 hour 48 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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