My Favorite Films: My Best Friend's Wedding

My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)

Director: P.J. Hogan

Context:
In 1994, up-and-coming Australian director P.J. Hogan made a name for himself (as well as some of his actors) with the romantic comedy Muriel's Wedding.  It received multiple awards and put Hogan in the sightline of Julia Roberts who suggested that he'd be a perfect fit for her next film, My Best Friend's Wedding.  The film came out in 1997 and thanks to Roberts' steadily growing fame (especially in the rom-com genre), it was a box-office hit.

I remember when this film came out and, though I was still in elementary school, I was already well-versed with the terms "romantic comedy" and "chick flick."  I regarded it as a film that wasn't for me and never would be for me.

Year later, when I was in high school, My Best Friend's Wedding was playing on TV.  And for some reason, I decided to watch it.  I can't quite recall the circumstances that lead me to watching it, but I have a distinct memory of seeing it all the way through.  I ended up really liking the movie, especially the "I Say a Little Prayer" scene, which always stuck in my mind whenever I'd think about anything wedding related.  I think that perhaps I hadn't realized that the "best friend" in the title of the movie was also the person our protagonist was in love with, and once I learned the premise, I decided to watch it.  Whatever the case, it became one of my unlikely all-time favorite films.

Plot:
27-year-old Julianne (Julia Roberts) suddenly finds herself as the maid of honor at the wedding of her best friend Michael (Dermot Mulroney) (with whom she once made a "married-at-28" pact and is still in love with) and she does everything she can to sabotage his relationship with his young bride Kimmy (Cameron Diaz).

Analysis:
I certainly lucked out choosing this moment, 10+ years later, to revisit this film now that I am also 28.  I hadn't seen the film since I saw it originally, and so I had forgotten a lot of the finer details of the story.  But as it all became clearer, I realized that I had watched the film completely differently back then.  For back then, I rooted for Juliette and Michael to end up together, and now, I rooted for them to end up apart.

This is one of those films that I feel just needs to exist.  Not that it's particularly groundbreaking or earth-shattering.  But it is as exact a pure essence of a '90s romantic comedy movie as you are ever going to find.  And, unlike most of my other favorite romantic comedies that subvert the trends (Chasing Amy, When Harry Met Sally, (500) Days of Summer), this one plays it straight.

It has nearly every cliche you can think of.  Beautiful protagonist who is clumsy? Check!  Does she have an absurdly high paying job that allows her to have this wacky adventure? Check, she's a renowned food critic!  Smoldering leading man?  Check!  Gay best friend?  Check!  Chasing your soulmate?  Check!  Does it all lead up to a wedding?  Check!  Karaoke scene?  Check!  A "perfect" rival?  Check!

But what Hogan does as a director is that he really amps up the presentation to make it stick out from the crowd.  The first thing I noticed upon review was that this is a very musical film.  It opens with a glamorized fantasy sequence that feels like an ad from the '60s where a bride and her bridesmaids sing "Wishin' and Hopin'," Kimmy must prove her worth at a karaoke bar, Michael sings Juliette their song, and of course, the centerpiece of the film is when the whole rehearsal dinner sings, "I Say a Little Prayer."  There's definitely a lot of singing, each song coming in at a key moment in the plot.  It gives the film this quasi-musical feel that sets it apart from other generic rom-coms.

Also, Hogan loves setting up his scenes with many visual quirks.  They aren't over abundant, but I took notice every time a something in the setting drew my attention.  Some of these are almost like Edgar Wright's background gags that he uses to underscore emotions and themes, and each of them work effectively.  In a scene at a restaurant where an argument is about to begin, a giant flame appears in the kitchen, framed just over Kimmy's head.  When Michael talks about not letting the opportunity to say, "I love you," pass you by, he and Juliette pass under a bridge and she misses her chance.  And when Juliette and Michael argue before the wedding, his groomsmen have filled the area with helium balloons, creating this enclosed trapped feeling, even though they are outside (and then the boys start singing in helium voices).

With all of these little touches, it feels like a lot of care went into making this a film that you remember.  Even though it's been a while since I had seen it, I could picture nearly every scene before it happened, due to the cinematic playfulness Hogan has.

Each character is also wonderfully realized, even down to the minor roles who you feel are going to be horrible stereotypes, but are actually fairly restrained.  Little touches like the fact that Michael's best man is his teenage brother (Christopher Masterson) who is always just slightly behind what everyone else is talking about due to his age.  Juliette's gay best friend George (Rupert Everett) is always exquisitely catty and poignant without falling into full-on sassy (the British accent helps).  And Cameron Diaz as Kimmy is just so adorable.  The script called for someone who could be perfect without being annoyingly so, and Diaz nails it by being so genuine.  (Side note: Cameron Diaz is in another one of my favorite films where she just disappears into the role and I'm starting to think that she may be one of my favorite actresses.  I'll get back to you on that.)

If there is to be any subversion in this movie, it is that our romantic lead Juliette is acting horribly the entire time.  Hers is a cautionary tale.  She acts irrationally, ignores her friends' advice, and only makes the situation worse for herself, Michael, and Kimmy.  Although Julia Roberts is conventionally beautiful, I've never seen her play someone so unattractive.  It was interesting pairing this film with last week's Chasing Amy because again we have a protagonist that makes terrible decisions in their love life.  (Also, I noticed both of them smoke cigarettes, which is practically unheard of in mainstream movies today.  In this movie, Juliette's smoking leads to a great scene where she briefly bonds with a hotel bellhop played by Paul Giamatti! Man, this is a great cast!)

The Ending:
Once again, Hogan has some fun with how he presents this story.  Kimmy and Juliette have a final confrontation where Juliette's behavior is addressed and of course, this all takes place in a public bathroom surrounded by women, playing the Greek chorus as they hear all of her dirty laundry.  Juliette finally accepts that she will not be the one to marry Michael, and becomes the maid of honor she should have been all along.

There isn't any scene of hesitation on Michael's part, or any moment where the wedding itself is ruined.  Michael and Kimmy end up happily together and Juliette just has to end up dancing with George.  And he gets to end the film with an amazing final line:

"Maybe there won't be marriage... maybe there won't be sex... but, by God, there'll be dancing."

And that sentiment, I feel, is the main take away from this movie.  You can't always get what you want.  Sometimes, you just gotta dance.

Final Thoughts:

As I said before, this is a movie that just feels like it should exist in the history of the world.  Not only does it embrace it's genre, but it has a great message that one wouldn't usually expect from movies of this type.  And it is presented in such a way that you can't help but be charmed by each character and scene.  It may be a romantic comedy.  And it may be a chick flick.  But there isn't anything wrong with that.