My Best Friend's Wedding (Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney)

(Amazon UK link)

Browsing DVDs on Amazon, wanting to add a few to my wishlist for potential Christmas presents, I came across 'My Best Friend's Wedding'. Probably recommended to me because of the genres I tend to like - low-key romantic films with a light, perhaps humorous side - and also the cast.

Sure enough, I enjoyed it very much.

The story features Julianne (Julia Roberts), who has been ‘best friends’ with Michael (Dermot Mulroney) for nine years. She is invited to his wedding... and suddenly realises she’s in love with him.

His fiancée (Cameron Diaz) is bright, enthusiastic, and also very much in love with Michael, but Julianne determines to do all she can to break them up, figuring that all is fair in love, and that Michael and she will never be really happy without each other.

The pace is good, the script well done, although it becomes rather surreal at times. For instance there's a scene almost reminiscent of a 1960s musical when a table full of guests break into song at one point. Or there's the time when Julianne’s gay boss drops everything and flies to her rescue after a frantic phone call. There is even a spoof Bond-style car chase.

But this DVD was exactly what I needed for an evening’s relaxation with my husband. Decidedly a ‘girly’ film, but he liked it too. Julia Roberts is believable, if a little over the top at times, and the outcome was never entirely certain until the end. Recommended.

Rated 12 in the UK, PG-13 in the USA, probably due to one or two instances of bad language, and a little sexual humour.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews