Word: everetts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Years ago, while performing in The Vortex in London's West End, English actor Rupert Everett responded to a audience member's nasty critique of his acting by mailing her several of his pubic hairs. Luckily, current reviewers can rest assured, because his newest collaboration with Madonna, The Next Best Thing, is a sweet screenful of love and friendship that gives the real life friends a chance to play characters similar to themselves on the big screen. As Abbie and Robert, however, the duo fail to stretch their acting ranges as they tackle roles that prove to be too similar...
Much like her off-screen persona, Madonna plays Abbie, a single yoga instructor with a long history of unsuccessful relationships. Abbie's Rock of Gibraltar is her best friend Robert (Everett), a gay landscape architect who has not been so lucky in love himself. The two are best friends in every sense of the word-in times of crisis, they rely on one another for solace, comfort and companionship. However, their platonic relationship is soon threatened by the death of a close friend-they consequently drown their sorrows away by indulging in an afternoon of cocktails, dancing and inebriated revelry...
...Sunday, Bloody Sunday and Marathon Man. While I do admire his attempt to stretch, Schlesinger, so skillful at creating dramatic conflict, does not appear to be as comfortable with the lighter material, and interplay between the various supporting characters often appears a little forced. This is clearly Madonna and Everett's show, and the supporting characters are not given enough to do and seem to exist simply to transition gaps in the storyline. As Ben Cooper, Benjamin Bratt (formerly of NBC's "Law and Order") is simply employed as an attractive man who conveniently stumbles into Abbie's live...
...Much of the discrepancy stems from the screenplay itself. The role of Abbie was originally envisioned as a swimming instructor, but after Madonna joined the cast, the character was not only given a change in occupation, but also remolded to better fit her own individual personality. Everett's character was fleshed out as well, and given a number of Rupertesque flourishes, such as when he spurns Madonna's character's interest and declares, "You are the woman I'd most like to...be." However, given that the two actors are basically playing themselves, the movie has a kind of lightness...
...film inevitably draws comparisons to and can practically be considered a possible sequel to My Best Friend's Wedding, the 1997 hit that made a breakout star out of Everett. Although he has been making films since the 80s, it was not until his role as Julia Robert's droll and retro-English gay confidante that Everett was brought to the forefront of Hollywood. The essence of casual bonhomie, Everett is naturally charming, inquisitive and seemingly at complete ease with himself, traits that are clearly reflected in the character of Robert, yet another droll and charming English confidante. He once...