Next Best Thing (The)
Country: USA, Language: English, 108 mins
- Director: John Schlesinger
- Writer: Tom Ropelewski
- Producer: Leslie Dixon; Gary Lucchesi
CGiii Comment
Schlesinger's final film and, unfortunately, it is a forgettable fluffy foray.
Basically, an inferior re-working of The Object of My Affection.
Madonna has a rather strange accent, the story is, by the end, thoroughly objectionable and it feels like a TV movie.
It should have been huge at the box office...but, it bombed - quite rightly so.
Watchable as long as you keep your expectations low.
A sad end to a blistering career.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
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.
Cast & Characters
Madonna as Abbie Reynolds;
Rupert Everett as Robert Whittaker;
Benjamin Bratt as Ben Cooper;
Illeana Douglas as Elizabeth Ryder;
Michael Vartan as Kevin Lasater;
Josef Sommer as Richard Whittaker;
Malcolm Stumpf as Sam;
Lynn Redgrave as Helen Whittaker;
Neil Patrick Harris as David;
Mark Valley as Cardiologist;
Suzanne Krull as Annabel;
Stacy Edwards as Finn;
John Carroll Lynch as Abbie's Lawyer;
Fran Bennett as Judge Tracey Bennett;
Ricki Lopez as Angel