My Best Friend's Wedding . Newcity Chicago . 10-27-97

My Best Friend's Wedding

DIRECTED BY: P.J. Hogan

REVIEWED: 10-27-97

If there's any genre that suits the package of personality we call "Julia Roberts," it would surely be Hollywood's classic screwball comedy. Among actresses working today, Roberts is probably the one most suited to the style of smart women such as Barbara Stanwyck and Katharine Hepburn, who could talk a mile a minute and move faster and be forgiven almost anything for their brassy yet charming wiles. Nutty or daffy, bewitched or bewildered, there are all sorts of comic states this wide-eyed, big-haired, elastic-lipped, horse-laughing, pratfalling filly could run through with quicksilver deftness. But from the alternately charming and appalling results of "My Best Friend's Wedding," we would have to deduce that screwball comedy is lost, and audiences have as much to lose as the still-so-young Roberts. Although Hogan displayed an offhand camp sensibility in his rambunctious, gaily-colored Australian import, "Muriel's Wedding," taking on a big, shiny Hollywood star vehicle shows an ambition that exceeds his devilish bad taste. The most charming character is Julianne's gay, second-best friend, played by Rupert Everett, who wittily underplays a series of hilariously smart, common-sense interventions. Still, I'll remember the exquisite last scene, in which all concerned manage to have their wedding cake and eat it, too, and Everett gets to ask, "Will Cinderella dance again?" and moments later, answers his own question, "By God, there'll be dancing!"

--Ray Pride

Full Length Reviews
My Best Friend's Wedding
My Best Friend's Wedding

Other Films by P.J. Hogan
Muriel's Wedding

Film Vault Suggested Links
Pennies From Heaven
Simply Irresistible
Love and Death on Long Island

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