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Boy, I sure
hope Illeana
Douglas has a meaty supporting role in "The
Next Best Thing," the Madonna-Rupert
Everett vehicle about a single woman who has a kid with her
gay best friend. Douglas, last seen as the hooker-turned-development-executive
in the late, much-lamented Fox series "Action,"
is not only a fine actor--check out her work in the creepy Kevin
Bacon-sees-dead-people thriller "Stir
of Echoes" --she's also incredibly fascinating to look
at.
 Go
into a movie like this with expectations like that, and you might
find yourself pleasantly surprised--by a supporting role, say, or
a few clever moments from the talented Everett,
who also co-wrote the screenplay. But barring some kind of acting
miracle from Madonna, "The
Next Best Thing" likely will go down in quick-to-video
history as just another attempt by Ms. Ciccone to hold the spotlight
in a death grip for a few moments longer, talking up her own single-motherhood,
describing her new "serious"
relationship, and flogging her dreadful
remake of one of the best
pop songs to come out of the 1970s. The day the music died,
indeed.
Frank Sennett
Newcity.com
affiliates deliver their "Next Best Thing" opinions:
TOO-HIGH CONCEPT
"The Next Best Thing" is sincere yet mostly ridiculous
BABY MAKES... TWO?
When the Gay Lifetime Channel is launched, surely this is the first movie
it'll show
SLOPPY JALOPY
This star vehicle collapses into a heap
DESPERATELY
SEEKING TALENT
Madonna's performance as an unconventional mother is laughable in
"The Next Best Thing?
SECOND BEST
"The Next Best Thing" is two-thirds insight into gay parenting and one-third
sappy crap
BAD MATERIAL & MATERIAL GIRL
Openly gay director John Schlesinger fights an uphill battle with a bland,
pandering script and a wooden Madonna
BEST
THING ABOUT IT
Gay parenting has rarely been portrayed with so much honesty as
in "The Next Best Thing"
 DESPERATE
HOURS
It would be hard to match the sheer awfulness of an afternoon spent
in front of "The Next Best Thing"
BEST
OF INTENTIONS
It's good of Madonna to tackle the changing structure of American
families, but "The Next Best Thing" is a poorly conceived, leaden
lump of a movie
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