My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)

What if there was a romantic comedy where you were rooting for the evil “other woman” but you didn’t know it? Well, Hollywood boldly went there in 1997 with My Best Friend’s Wedding. And what a charming evil woman we have as our protagonist here, in Jules (Julia Roberts). She’s an utter delight, as is Kimmy (Cameron Diaz). The only stretch here is that either would find anything appealing about this dimwitted drip named Michael (Dermot Mulroney). 

Director P.J. Hogan called My Best Friend’s Wedding “a romantic comedy that wasn’t very romantic.” And it is very impressive to see how well the movie balances its many tensions—to have Julia Roberts, the lead, be someone the audience roots for, but not too much; to have her rival Cameron Diaz be able to hold her own against Roberts but not steal the show; and to have the dullard male lead not seem like an oblivious jerk. 

Well, it worked. This movie rules. We both loved it. But we need to make fun of stuff, so we do a lot of bad impressions and ask a lot of unimportant questions: Michael and Jules were definitely still boning even when they were “just friends,” right? Why does the movie have to make Cameron Diaz’s character 20, instead of 25 (the age of the actress)? Did people really compose emails and then set them aside for their secretaries to send at the end of the day? And is it okay for a sportswriter who covers the Chicago White Sox marrying the daughter of the team’s owner? This movie is about ethics in sports journalism, is what we’re saying.