My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)

Directed by P.J. Hogan. With Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, Cameron Diaz, Rupert Everett. When a woman's long-time friend reveals he's engaged, she realizes she loves him herself and sets out to get him, with only days before the wedding.

My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) / Свадьба Лучшего Друга (Трейлер) Director: P.J. Hogan Starring: Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney and Cameron Diaz. Nominated f...

Essentially an old-fashioned romantic comedy with a few dark twists, My Best Friend's Wedding marks the return of Julia Roberts to the genre. She plays Julianne Potter, a writer of culinary guides. As her 28th birthday draws near, Julianne eagerly anticipates a proposal from her handsome former college buddy Michael O'Neal (Dermot Mulroney). The best of friends during those years (though Julianne has always secretly loved him), they vowed that if both were still single at age 28, they would marry each other. She is justifiably excited when the phone rings and it is Michael; but her joy quickly turns to shock when he obliviously invites her to Chicago to attend his wedding to innocent, sweet-natured heiress Kimmy Wallace (Cameron Diaz). Enraged, the jealous and hurt Julianne visits her buddy and editor George (Rupert Everett) and to him vows to stop at nothing to win Michael back. At first what follows is standard-issue screwball comedy. Julianne enacts a plot to turn Michael away from Kimmy and the plot backfires making the heiress look even better to her besotted fiance. After several failed attempts, the tale turns blacker as Julianne becomes almost insanely desperate and begins doing things that are less cute than awful to her romantic rival. Meanwhile, George remains the one voice of sanity, sort of a Greek chorus, for Julianne. As the tale progresses, each of the protagonists is led to the point where they must examine their true motives, behavior and emotions, thus adding a depth not usually found in this type of story.

The heroine’s a terrible monster, the hero’s a selfish schmuck, and that’s only the beginning.

When she dumped Michael as a boyfriend in college, Julianne made him her new best friend. And they made a pact: If they were still single at 28, they'd marry each other. Now they're almost 28. And Michael is in Chicago. And wants Julianne to call him. She's touched. She has always really loved the guy. But he's not calling to propose. He's calling to explain he's engaged to be married in three days--to a junior at the University of Chicago, whose father owns the White Sox and a cable TV empire.

Overview of My Best Friend's Wedding, 1997, directed by P.J. Hogan, with Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz, Dermot Mulroney, at Turner Classic Movies

Love continues to be exceedingly strange in the romantic comedy "My Best Friend's Wedding." Anchored by skilled comedienne Julia Roberts, this skewered variation on jealousy and the wrong woman doing battle in the aisles is a winning balance of the familiar and the novel.

Marta Bausells: Simple but effective, cheesy but hilarious, this 1997 romcom has important lessons to teach about life, love – and desserts