My Best Friend's Wife

Got a preview of this last night. Enjoyed it. Was definitely engaging and kept me wondering how it would pan out in the end. Acting was a bit uneven from some of the actors-- especially the wives. Their performances weren't very convincing. John Stamos did a fine job-- maybe b/c his character wasn't too far of a stretch??? Daniel London could have been a bit stronger... came across as whiny at times... and still couldn't believe that he and Stamos would have remained so tight after all that time... the connections between the couples didn't seem "close enough" for them to consider what they were considering.

Dialog was well written-- tho' a little stilted on delivery... definitely several laugh out loud moments. Extraneous characters were just that... very extraneous and didn't offer too much value (esp. the two guys from the office... what WERE they doing in this film???)... I know it's an independent film, but thought the editing was a bit chopping and the sound quality was just fair... still... with all that taken into account, it was a good flick-- thought provoking, stereotype reinforcing to some extent (good? bad?) and one that would DEFINITELY lead to some very lively discussion afterwards, esp. if you see it in mixed company (such as with your best friend and his/her hottie husband/wife).

Two childhood best friends grow up and are still best friends at age 30, but now are both married, one to his first girlfriend. Their lives have become far more boring than they would like, and what were once jokes about wife swapping begin to be taken seriously, first by the men and eventually by the women, as a last act of wildness before becoming grownups.

The comedy works fairly well, but the actors are not good enough to make the premise believable or to carry off the dramatic scenes. To the writers' credit, the complications that ensue are not simply the obvious ones. The film has high production values and it tied for the audience award at Cinequest (the San Jose, CA film festival) for best dramatic feature, so perhaps it has a chance of getting distribution. I saw it on 3/2/2002.

I enjoyed this film, and it did actually make me think about relationships, specifically monogamy and such. The writing and direction are clever at times, and the performances are uniformly efficient at telling the story. That's the best and worst I can say about it, meaning nothing was really stand-out, but nothing was *wrong* per se, either.

John Stamos did a great job, but can't say that about the rest of the cast. The movie is thought provoking with a load of laughs. Made me love Stamos' acting so much because of the funny lines he delivered with an absolute straight and serious face. I had to pause many times just so I could hear the movie through my own laughter! The best parts of the movie are when Stamos is trying to convince his wife - he actually goes all out to make his point across. That took guts on his character. And the second one, was when Stamos was stating the DOs and Don''ts to his friend and wives- his facial gestures and body language in this scene makes the whole movie worthwhile.

It was a sad pain to watch Daniel London. He almost made me turn the movie off. Very whiny and sissy. But he does play a very crucial role. I recommend to watch this either by yourself or with a very happy crowd if you are throwing a friends get together.