MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: language, sexual humor

Rated:

Jules Potter (Julia Roberts) is a successful reporter who specializes in food. She has it all -- a good paying job, a position of high importance in the business, and a free meal at all the best restaurants. Unfortunately, she has just realized that she doesn't have what's important -- the love of an old college bud Michael O'Neil, who has just announced his intention to marry a gorgeous young architect. And so Jules, to the annoyance of her editor George, decides to break the match up. Only one problem. She has four days until the wedding bells toll. 

Kim (Cameron Diaz) is a bubbly blond with a perfect figure, no sense of rhythm, and heir to a fortune -- and she seems madly in love with Mike. As Jules confesses in one of her many frantic phone calls to George -- if she didn't hate Kim, she'd love her. Her family is warm and hilarious, the conversation easy and welcoming, and Jules feels right at home. However, she doesn't want to feel at home. So a series of evil and twisted plots come to the light as she tries in vain to break Mike away from the adoring Kim, as the days and moments tick down to the wire. In one last attempt to make Mike jealous, George flies into town to pose (unconsciously) as her fiancé and the hilarity escalates as Jules finds that Mike isn't as interested as she had hoped he would be... and George isn't much of a help. As the date of the wedding rushes forward like an incoming train, Jules must search her heart and head and make one last frantic attempt to make things right. But perhaps somewhere along the line she'll question her motives, and realize the truth... that perhaps Mike and Kim are perfect for each other after all...

This is a charming and often "mushy" comedy, with an all-star cast, and only a few issues. There are two-dozen profanities easily overlooked, with eight or nine of "God" -- including one GD, and one f-word. The film is relatively clean when you look at the other "romance" movies released in the last ten years. Various jokes are made about sex and the characters allude to past encounters without being graphic or too suggestive, but still some kids will catch on easily enough. Jules uses the f-word sexually to allude to George's reasons for coming to town and he says something similar at a later date, only much more watered down. He briefly touches her breasts in a taxi cab, a bridesmaid's tongue gets stuck at an embarrassing part of an ice statue's anatomy, and Mike walks in on Jules when she's in her underwear and makes a remark that suggests former premarital sex.

However, the most unfortunate is a conscious wink at homosexuality. George is apparently gay, something which they laugh over when Mike asks how the two came to be engaged. Even with these few problems, My Best Friend's Wedding is a cute and good-hearted comedy and a definite choice Notting Hill. The music's cute, the acting's good, the laughs are a hundred a minute, and it leaves you with a smile... even if it doesn't turn out perhaps the way you thought it might.