My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)

When a food critic (Julia Roberts) hears from her best friend (Dermot Mulroney), with whom she had a romantic fling years ago, is going to get married, she plots to break up the wedding. Directed by P.J. Hogan (MURIEL'S WEDDING), this is one of the better romantic comedies of the 1990s. Ronald Bass's screenplay subverts the genre by making Roberts' heroine a terrible person. She's deceitful, manipulative, selfish and suitably chastised by the finale while her rival (Cameron Diaz) is sweet and forgiving. Fortunately, romcom queen Roberts is eminently likable so while you're appalled by her actions, you can't really hate her. This aspect makes the film refreshing next to its romcom counterparts who usually go down the predictable path. Director Hogan's previous film MURIEL'S WEDDING used ABBA on the soundtrack to propel the movie along, here he uses the music of Burt Bacharach to similar effect. With Rupert Everett stuck in the cliched role of the heroine's gay best friend, Paul Giamatti, Susan Sullivan, Philip Bosco and Rachel Griffiths.