So this is what would've happened if Will & Grace had been piloted with Madonna and Rupert Everett and they had a kid in the first episode. Considering its reputation, The Next Best Thing isn't that bad. It's just a wacky sitcom paced and written rather hideously. There's no consistency in tone whatsoever. For stretches it's a weird comedy and then a sappy, sentimental romance before turning inappropriately dramatic.
Rupert Everett is rather charming while Benjamin Bratt is wannabe dashing. Madonna repeatedly steals the show with a performance always attempting to be sincere and rarely succeeding.
In the last act, she blindsides Everett by essentially kidnapping their six-year-old son. It's a moment that's truly jarring, messing up the film's entire dynamic by making her unfathomably unsympathetic. It also turns out she's been lying about paternity for years, offering up a scene that's straight out of a soap opera. The melodrama in the last thirty minutes is surprisingly well-acted and totally engaging despite some very bad writing.
Had the finale taken a lighter approach, this would've surely been a cult classic. Instead, it's just a weird, deeply depressing misfire.
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