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Julia Roberts in a tearful scene from "My Best Friend's Wedding"
The very musical and theatrical comedy, My Best Friend’s Wedding is a film about a woman who in her quest to win her prize (her male best friend and former lover), she realizes that her masculine personality needs to be feminized, but her naturally aggressive personality never fades. This tomboyish woman’s quest is played out amidst infectious, side-splitting camp that never goes over the top, as well as director P.J. Hogan’s true-to-life mean-spiritedness that has become his trademark.
I recently bought the Best Friend’s DVD and I’ve just about worn it out. Whenever I see Best Friend’s I feel a rush of emotions, from laughter to sadness, but whatever the emotion may be, all of the emotions are undeniably human. Hogan is keen at tapping into the broad parts of the human psyche as well as the minutiae. I’m sure that it’s the actors’ talent that accounts for the genuineness of Best Friend’s, but I also think that Hogan knows how to bring out honest performances from the actors he works with, so that the characters are more than just vessels to speak dialogue and are recognizably humans.
Australian film director P.J. Hogan is somewhat of an auteur because his personality spills out into his films. Hogan consistently uses popular songs and pop culture references exceptionally well to strengthen the meaning of his films. Hogan’s last film prior to Best Friend’s is 1994’s Muriel’s Wedding and the film was what inspired Best Friend’s star Julia Roberts to hire Hogan as the director of Best Friend’s. Although Muriel’s and Best Friend’s are two noticeably different films—the former inspires sympathy from the audience, while the latter inspires against sympathy—both film’s are full of well-known songs that convey the ethos of each film. Regardless of if the well-known songs are used to inspire celebration, fun or sadness, the songs ultimately endear the audience by somehow striking an emotional chord with the audience. In Muriel’s Hogan used the music of Abba (which was glossy and happy-go-lucky on the surface, but underneath the gloss was a bitter sweetness) to show the main character Muriel’s desire to rise above a dismal, humiliating world to become glamorous and actually happy. In Best Friend’s Hogan uses the music of the1960s and 1970s—that include Dionne Warwick—to summon a feeling of the past. That’s another common element of Hogan’s films; he has characters from a modern era identify with music from a past era, which can be defined as nostalgia. Ultimately, nostalgia is what drives Julia Robert’s tomboy in Best Friend’s to want to steal her best friend’s fiancé.
Released in the summer of 1997, Best Friend’s was advertised as a romantic comedy that boasted the California-wide smile of Julia Roberts, as well as her explosive laugh, but instead of showing the America’s sweetheart side of Roberts that’s shown in films like Pretty Woman and Steel Magnolias, Best Friend’s showed a different side of Roberts that was surprisingly convincing. Roberts does not play the protagonist of Best Friend’s, but more the antagonist. Throughout the film, Roberts’ character does one thing to inspire sympathy, but then does something else to counteract the sympathetic moment; it’s a constant tennis match between acts of sympathy and acts of animosity.
Best Friend’s is the story of a 27-year-old New York City food critic named Julianne Potter who finds out immediately that her former lover and best friend of 9 years Michael O’Neal (Delmot Mulroney whose curled lips have a Rock Hudson quality to them) is engaged to be married, and will be starting the wedding preparation weekend in less than 24 hours. Julianne’s mission blasts off into action immediately. She must stop her best friend from getting married and then steal his heart from the blond heiress Kimmy (Cameron Diaz)
Roberts’ Julianne is undeniably a tomboy going through Best Friend’s primarily wearing pants and walking with the gait of a gangly Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird. The one glamorous aspect of Julianne is her curly Rita Hayworth-like auburn hair. Julianne’s hair is “big” as Kimmy makes note of in Best Friend’s, and at points in the film Julianne’s big hair gets so voluminous that she resembles a member of a hair-metal band.
In this day and age, romantic comedies are formulaic at best and they’re defined as being the same movie over and over again, except with different character names and sometimes different actors (which is often not always the case). The standard romantic comedy consists of two people eventually falling in love each other after obstacles keep them from realizing their love or they spend the majority of the film bickering—think of the Doris Day and Rock Hudson movies from the 1960s. Oh yes, and add adorable pets like dogs and cats, as well as characters that play the sidekicks (usually female) to the main characters, as well as popular soft-rock music. Best Friend’s does involve people falling in love with each other and has a sidekick and is full of popular music, but the film is a warped, gonzo version of the standard romantic comedy, which means that Best Friend’s is by no means a standard romantic comedy. Rupert Everett plays the sidekick George, who is Julianne’s editor and second best friend who acts as Julianne’s voice of reason. Hogan himself compared George to "Pinocchio"’s Jiminy Cricket who was wise and acted as a conscience and was sympathetic, but was also blunt in the advice he gave. George is just that, blunt, and also quite theatrical.
The theatricality of George is a character that embodies the campy and sing-songy entertainment of Best Friend’s. No other character in the film represents the spirit of Best Friend’s main spirit. Hogan’s dreamy sequences that come across as scenes from old animated Disney movies come-to-life are so hypnotic, they’re often magical. There’s a scene in the film when George tells a fictional, but fanciful tale of how he and Julianne met at a mental hospital where there was a man who thought he was Dionne Warwick and started singing Dionne Warwick’s classic 1967 hit, “Say A Little Prayer,” which sets into a motion a musical scene that mesmerizes the characters, as well as the audience. The physical appearance of Diaz’s Kimmy represents the nostalgia of Best Friend’s by being a throwback to the zaniness of Doris Day. Kimmy has the hairstyle of a woman from the 1950s to the early 1960s and she has this old-fashioned essence to her. Kimmy’s shrill hysteria and trusting nature is child-like and naïve, but Kimmy is as Julianne puts it, “endearing.” Kimmy has a softness and innocence that Julianne obviously lacks, it’s clear to see that Julianne missed out on her chance to be Michael’s girl even though she wishes she could go back in time. This is a situation that most humans can relate to: a person wishing they could right their wrongs and bring the knowledge that they learned in the future with them back to the past with intentions of using it to change history. Best Friend’s is essentially Julianne’s journey through denial and her inability to let go of the past; her inability to let go prevents her from focusing on herself and how to make herself a better person.
My Best Friend’s Wedding is a classic, at least for me, because it’s a film that can be watched repeatedly without wear. P.J. Hogan’s direction is like flesh and blood, while being of dreamy pastel colors that look like they came out of Glinda the Good Witch’s bubble. After watching My Best Friend’s Wedding, it would be highly unlikely that the film didn’t strike an emotional chord within the viewer. My Best Friend’s Wedding is a film that truly gets what human nature is all about.
I recently bought the Best Friend’s DVD and I’ve just about worn it out. Whenever I see Best Friend’s I feel a rush of emotions, from laughter to sadness, but whatever the emotion may be, all of the emotions are undeniably human. Hogan is keen at tapping into the broad parts of the human psyche as well as the minutiae. I’m sure that it’s the actors’ talent that accounts for the genuineness of Best Friend’s, but I also think that Hogan knows how to bring out honest performances from the actors he works with, so that the characters are more than just vessels to speak dialogue and are recognizably humans.
Australian film director P.J. Hogan is somewhat of an auteur because his personality spills out into his films. Hogan consistently uses popular songs and pop culture references exceptionally well to strengthen the meaning of his films. Hogan’s last film prior to Best Friend’s is 1994’s Muriel’s Wedding and the film was what inspired Best Friend’s star Julia Roberts to hire Hogan as the director of Best Friend’s. Although Muriel’s and Best Friend’s are two noticeably different films—the former inspires sympathy from the audience, while the latter inspires against sympathy—both film’s are full of well-known songs that convey the ethos of each film. Regardless of if the well-known songs are used to inspire celebration, fun or sadness, the songs ultimately endear the audience by somehow striking an emotional chord with the audience. In Muriel’s Hogan used the music of Abba (which was glossy and happy-go-lucky on the surface, but underneath the gloss was a bitter sweetness) to show the main character Muriel’s desire to rise above a dismal, humiliating world to become glamorous and actually happy. In Best Friend’s Hogan uses the music of the1960s and 1970s—that include Dionne Warwick—to summon a feeling of the past. That’s another common element of Hogan’s films; he has characters from a modern era identify with music from a past era, which can be defined as nostalgia. Ultimately, nostalgia is what drives Julia Robert’s tomboy in Best Friend’s to want to steal her best friend’s fiancé.
Released in the summer of 1997, Best Friend’s was advertised as a romantic comedy that boasted the California-wide smile of Julia Roberts, as well as her explosive laugh, but instead of showing the America’s sweetheart side of Roberts that’s shown in films like Pretty Woman and Steel Magnolias, Best Friend’s showed a different side of Roberts that was surprisingly convincing. Roberts does not play the protagonist of Best Friend’s, but more the antagonist. Throughout the film, Roberts’ character does one thing to inspire sympathy, but then does something else to counteract the sympathetic moment; it’s a constant tennis match between acts of sympathy and acts of animosity.
Best Friend’s is the story of a 27-year-old New York City food critic named Julianne Potter who finds out immediately that her former lover and best friend of 9 years Michael O’Neal (Delmot Mulroney whose curled lips have a Rock Hudson quality to them) is engaged to be married, and will be starting the wedding preparation weekend in less than 24 hours. Julianne’s mission blasts off into action immediately. She must stop her best friend from getting married and then steal his heart from the blond heiress Kimmy (Cameron Diaz)
Roberts’ Julianne is undeniably a tomboy going through Best Friend’s primarily wearing pants and walking with the gait of a gangly Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird. The one glamorous aspect of Julianne is her curly Rita Hayworth-like auburn hair. Julianne’s hair is “big” as Kimmy makes note of in Best Friend’s, and at points in the film Julianne’s big hair gets so voluminous that she resembles a member of a hair-metal band.
In this day and age, romantic comedies are formulaic at best and they’re defined as being the same movie over and over again, except with different character names and sometimes different actors (which is often not always the case). The standard romantic comedy consists of two people eventually falling in love each other after obstacles keep them from realizing their love or they spend the majority of the film bickering—think of the Doris Day and Rock Hudson movies from the 1960s. Oh yes, and add adorable pets like dogs and cats, as well as characters that play the sidekicks (usually female) to the main characters, as well as popular soft-rock music. Best Friend’s does involve people falling in love with each other and has a sidekick and is full of popular music, but the film is a warped, gonzo version of the standard romantic comedy, which means that Best Friend’s is by no means a standard romantic comedy. Rupert Everett plays the sidekick George, who is Julianne’s editor and second best friend who acts as Julianne’s voice of reason. Hogan himself compared George to "Pinocchio"’s Jiminy Cricket who was wise and acted as a conscience and was sympathetic, but was also blunt in the advice he gave. George is just that, blunt, and also quite theatrical.
The theatricality of George is a character that embodies the campy and sing-songy entertainment of Best Friend’s. No other character in the film represents the spirit of Best Friend’s main spirit. Hogan’s dreamy sequences that come across as scenes from old animated Disney movies come-to-life are so hypnotic, they’re often magical. There’s a scene in the film when George tells a fictional, but fanciful tale of how he and Julianne met at a mental hospital where there was a man who thought he was Dionne Warwick and started singing Dionne Warwick’s classic 1967 hit, “Say A Little Prayer,” which sets into a motion a musical scene that mesmerizes the characters, as well as the audience. The physical appearance of Diaz’s Kimmy represents the nostalgia of Best Friend’s by being a throwback to the zaniness of Doris Day. Kimmy has the hairstyle of a woman from the 1950s to the early 1960s and she has this old-fashioned essence to her. Kimmy’s shrill hysteria and trusting nature is child-like and naïve, but Kimmy is as Julianne puts it, “endearing.” Kimmy has a softness and innocence that Julianne obviously lacks, it’s clear to see that Julianne missed out on her chance to be Michael’s girl even though she wishes she could go back in time. This is a situation that most humans can relate to: a person wishing they could right their wrongs and bring the knowledge that they learned in the future with them back to the past with intentions of using it to change history. Best Friend’s is essentially Julianne’s journey through denial and her inability to let go of the past; her inability to let go prevents her from focusing on herself and how to make herself a better person.
My Best Friend’s Wedding is a classic, at least for me, because it’s a film that can be watched repeatedly without wear. P.J. Hogan’s direction is like flesh and blood, while being of dreamy pastel colors that look like they came out of Glinda the Good Witch’s bubble. After watching My Best Friend’s Wedding, it would be highly unlikely that the film didn’t strike an emotional chord within the viewer. My Best Friend’s Wedding is a film that truly gets what human nature is all about.
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