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The Movie:
"The Next Best Thing" works; barely. Obviously, the pairing of Rupert Everett and Madonna will be overshadowed by the much more successful pairing of Everett and Julia Roberts in "My Best Friend's Wedding". Where "Wedding" had better dialogue and a great performance from Roberts, "Next Best Thing" seems more like an opportunity for pals Everett and Madonna to star in a film together than an actual story.
Madonna stars as Abbie and Everett stars as her gay gardener friend Robert. The two are the best of friends, sharing each other's personal dramas, but during one drunk night, the two of them sleep with one another and it messes up the friendship. Soon though, Abbie finds out that she's pregnant. The two decide that they could make things work as parents, and...
Well, and at this point the film could have made for a moderately interesting tale of these two people trying to raise a child. But, a few steps down the road, things begin to fall down. The second half of the film has the two taking care of a child named Sam; instead of playing many of these scenes for light comedy, the film is a bit too serious for it's own good and takes a turn into soap opera territory. What comedy the film does have is played awkwardly, and doesn't generate many laughs.
What we're left to rely upon are the leads. Madonna isn't particularly the greatest actress in the world, but she does give it a try here. Everett is ok, but you can't help but remember how much better he was against Roberts in "Wedding". As the film goes onwards, Benjamin Bratt (as a character named, of course, Ben.) enters Abbie's life and makes Robert furious.
"Next Best Thing" sometimes works against itself. It wants the audience to believe the story of these two characters trying to make it work, but it also doesn't feel honest with it's glamourous lighting and sometimes sappy music. A film like this makes me want to take it down to the basic element of the story and rebuild from there; it's not a bad concept with these two trying to raise a kid, but it completely goes the wrong ways with it's final act where Abbie and Robert fight for the child in court - it's Everett's respectable dramatic performance in these scenes that save them from failing.
"The Next Best Thing" isn't awful, but it's not great, either. The film has moments, but would have been better to stick to a comedy than the film's spin into drama.
The DVD
VIDEO: Paramount's effort for "The Next Best Thing" is not without some flaws, but generally provides a very good looking presentation whose problems will not distract too greatly from the viewing experience. Although the image seems intentionally a little bit soft, sharpness is fine. Detail is also good, and occasionally gets close to very good.
The only real flaw in the presentation (offered on a dual-layer disc) is that there are some minor print flaws, but these seem isolated to only a couple of areas of the movie. I only saw minimal marks, but nothing major or even mild. Overall, it's about what I would expect from a movie of a few months of age. On the positive side, I didn't notice any instances of pixelation or shimmering, or any other similar problems.
Davis's cinematography lights and shoots every character in such warm light that the movie occasionally takes on a little bit of a "photo shoot" feel. But, that's sort of off-track. As for colors, they look great and well-saturated, consistently bold and bright, without any sort of flaws. I wasn't a fan of the film's overly "glamourous" look at times, but as for Paramount's effort on DVD, there isn't much to complain about here in what is a solid presentation.
SOUND: "The Next Best Thing" is presented with a Dolby Digital 5.0 soundtrack (along with English and French 2.0 tracks). As with many comedies, the audio seems taken down to the bare essentials. The great majority of the audio in the film comes from the front, and generally makes for a decent presentation.
The sound mostly is dialogue, but the score and occasional music (mostly the song "American Pie") comes in and sounds clear and crisp, with no problems at all. I noticed one or two instances where the surrounds came into play, but these were brief and not too noticable. No problems with the film's sound, but there just isn't a whole lot to it; it's mainly dialogue-driven and it gets that task done well - no more, no less.
MENUS:: Film-themed images are stylishly displayed in the non-animated menus for "Next Best Thing".
EXTRAS: Paramount has provided "Next Best Thing" with a handful of smaller extras; first - we get the video for the "American Pie" cover from Madonna that came under some controversy since people weren't thrilled with her covering the classic tune.
The second supplement is the disc's biggest; a featurette called "Reflections on "Next Best Thing" that is essentially many interviews from the cast and the director of the film edited together into a organized perspective on the film, and the occasional clip from behind-the-scenes footage. This documentary lasts about 14 and a half minutes or so.
Last but not least is the trailer, which spins the film as much more of a comedy than the final film is. It's full-frame and Dolby 2.0.
Final Thoughts: "The Next Best Thing" is maybe worth looking at as a rental, especially for fans of the two leads. Paramount's DVD edition offers good video and fine audio quality, and a couple of extras of interest.
Film Grade
The Film ** 1/2/****
DVD Grades
Video 89/B+ = (534/600 possible points)
Audio: 83/B = (498/600 possible points)
Extras: 80/B- = (320/400 possible points)
Menus: 74/C = (148/200 possible points)
Value: 80/B- = (160/200 possible points)
TOTAL POINTS:1660/1600
DVD GRADE:B/83%
FILM GRADE: ** 1/2/****
DVD GRADE: B
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