My Best Friend's Wedding Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

My Best Friend's Wedding Blu-ray Movie Review

A long-awaited release earns a tip-top "Mastered in 4K" transfer.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 7, 2015

Once upon a time in Hollywood, Julia Roberts was just about the hottest commodity on the block, her big hair, bright smile, and twinkling eyes the envy of every actress and the face guaranteed to send box offices soaring and studio accountants busy adding up ticket revenue into the wee hours of the morning. Roberts' "happily ever after" leading lady charisma won the world over in her career-defining role in the Adult-oriented Romantic Comedy/Drama Pretty Woman. She would show a more versatile range in follow-up films like Flatliners and Dying Young, but it was the more tender, funny, and soulful Roberts that always seemed like her screen comfort zone, despite excellent performances in those aforementioned films and other, later career films, including her Oscar-winning performance in Erin Brockovich. Enter My Best Friend's Wedding, a movie in the mold of, and for Roberts a return to, the happy-go-lucky comedy/drama flavor of Pretty Woman. Except this time, she's turning another kind of trick: hoping to make the man she loves dump his Kimmy-come-lately bride-to-be so that he may end up with, in her mind, the girl he's destined to marry: herself. It's a fun little twist on the game of love, a spunky, innocent, and entertaining little turn in which "happily ever after" may not necessarily mean that everything goes according to plan, how it was envisioned in the head or even written on the stars in one's own hand.

It should've been me.

Julianne (Julia Roberts) spent "one hot month" in college with Michael (Dermot Mulroney). She broke his heart, but they nevertheless remained best friends and made a blood vow that they would marry one another if both were still single by age 28. Now, weeks away from her 28th birthday, Julianne receives a frenzied call from Michael. She hopes he's about tell her that they're getting married, but he has other news: he's met someone else, a wealthy socialite named Kimmie (Cameron Diaz) whose father owns both a television cable network and the Chicago White Sox baseball club. They're madly in love and the wedding is less than a week away. Julianne, who has been asked to serve as Kimmie's maid of honor, sets out to ruin the relationship and steal back the man of her dreams, no matter what.

My Best Friend's Wedding plays through a lot of stock genre bits, the usual sort of comedic shenanigans interlaced with the film's more serious and tender side. The story of a woman desperate to marry a man only now because he's about to marry someone else yields many of the expected scenarios: the humorous spills and chases, the arm-twisting and back-stabbing, the tearful truths, and painful realities. Yet the film juggles its ebbs and flows as well as can be expected, finding an even-keeled middle ground that's a result of a knowing, balanced script from the hand of Ronald Bass (The Joy Luck Club, Rain Man) and a spunky yet heartfelt turn from Director P.J. Hogan (Confessions of a Shopaholic). Much the same may be said of the film's stars, who eat up the material and regurgitate it with not only an appropriate enthusiasm but a knowing depth that exists beyond the page and the basic character façades and paints a wider picture that questions the boundary between real friendship and true love and how far one might go to jeopardize one in the name of the other.

The movie finds core goodness in both its whimsical story of whirlwind love and the ensuing panic that's evident in external, and often funny, fumes and furies and internal, and often moving, regrets and doubts alike. The characters spring the movie to life with a passion for their cores and the values they bring to the table, with tangible shape and honesty even in their most dishonest dealings and manipulations. The movie is at its best not when characters gather for song or even when humorous, and largely stock, shenanigans take center stage, but rather when it explores the deepest recesses within each character -- Julianne and Michael in particular -- and pushes beyond the humor to look at the real consequences on souls both shaped and wounded by love. The movie is essentially the story of a second chance emerging from a last chance, of promise, hope, and faith battling against the sudden realization that time may have moved on by not for lack of want but for lack of effort to stop it dead in its tracks and seize the moment, a moment not quite yet gone but fading fast in life's rearview mirror as crossed paths simply drift too far apart, so far that anything other than a dedicated slam on the brakes and full 180 from both parties can stop the freight train of fate, no matter how true its destination, how right or wrong its cargo, how fast it speeds towards the end of the line. And the movie is quite funny, too. Best of both worlds and all that.

My Best Friend's Wedding Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Fans have been waiting for My Best Friend's Wedding, and Sony's 1080p "Mastered in 4K" Blu-ray transfer is worth every minute. The image is, simply, gorgeous. It's beautifully filmic, retaining a light, barely visible but nevertheless critical grain structure. Details are razor-sharp and effortlessly so, with skin details in particular appearing immaculately lifelike and complex in every close-up. Clothing lines are equally precise, while every background -- whether a luxury hotel's appointments or a distant baseball diamond's grass and dirt -- are so pure and naturally crisp that one cannot help but become lost in the transfer and enjoy its every fine texture. Colors, likewise, are cheery and vibrant, with a wide, all-encmpasing palette that reveals the brightest shades and all of the finest nuances with breathless realism. The image appears free of any wear, and no occurrences of banding, blockiness, edge halos, or other unwanted eyesores are apparent. The only downsides are lightly crushed blacks in a couple of the darkest moments -- the film's famous riverboat scene being a prime example -- and flesh tones that push ever-so-slightly warm. Otherwise, this is top-end, reference quality material from Sony and a showcase for how a movie that's now old enough to vote should look on Blu-ray.

My Best Friend's Wedding Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

My Best Friend's Wedding's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack is made primarily of the big three pieces generally found in Romantic Comedy type soundtracks: music, ambience, and dialogue. Music enjoys a light, airy feel, with effortless front stage presence and small background support. Clarity is strong through the range with a nice bit of weight at the bottom. The track features many scenes that spring to life with random yet critical little bits of ambient detail. Background restaurant din, for example, may be heard and enjoyed in several scenes, complete with a fairly large, enveloping stage sensation. Organ music, cheering fans, and public address announcements at the ballpark are also lively and accurate. Dialogue enjoys natural center flow and effortless, lifelike clarity. All in all, this is a good, even, and natural lossless presentation from Sony.

My Best Friend's Wedding Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

My Best Friend's Wedding contains several vintage bonuses. Note that the back of the box advertises the inclusion of trailers, which do not appear on the Blu-ray. A UV digital copy voucher is also included in the Blu-ray case.

• On Set: My Best Friend's Wedding (480i, 19:33): Cast and crew recap the plot and discuss character qualities; the picture's style and humor; story origins and structure; shooting locations; filming key scenes; tales from the set; the picture's score, photography, and costumes; and more.
• My Best Friend's Wedding Album (480i, 7:16): Behind the scenes footage blended with a trivia track running across the bottom of the screen.
• Wedding Do's & Dont's (480i, 4:38): Some engagement and wedding tips set to vintage film footage.
• Unveiled: My Best Friend's Wedding (480i, 15:14): a broad, fast-moving piece that covers a number of topics in rapid-fire fashion, including everything from why key scenes work to cast camaraderie.
• Say a Little Prayer for You Sing-Along (480i, 2:32): A karaoke version of a song heard in the film.

My Best Friend's Wedding Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

My Best Friend's Wedding shows surprising depth in its story, a story that looks at the consequences of true love not so much brushed aside but put on hold, given time to make sure the heart is right rather than trust that it's not wrong. It's in many ways a typical RomCom and, in others, largely atypical, keeping up appearances as it sorts out a messy love triangle that, up until the last little bit, doesn't point in any one direction other than humorous chaos and heartfelt charm. The movie is very well performed, tightly written, and keenly directed. It's one of Roberts' best in a long list of great films and arguably, aside from Pretty Woman, her fluffiest and funniest yet most fundamentally gratifying. Sony's Blu-ray release of My Best Friend's Wedding features superb reference-quality video, rock-solid audio, and a handful of carryover supplements from the DVD era. Highly recommended.