There is an old saying when it comes to matrimony about how one should marry their best friend.  I suppose there is truth in that statement.  After all, you do not want to spend the rest of your life with an intolerable person.  Sadly, for centuries there have been weddings of convenience.  Whether for economic or political reasons, or between two people who have known each other for a long time and just think why not, many of these unions are different than as God would have them.  He wants for your happiness, though that does not mean that life will always be easy.  Sometimes, you have to make that tough decision for the proverbial greater good.  He is with you through the bad and good, which is what a spouse is supposed to model.  Though there is nothing Christian about My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997), the story does speak to these facts.

If there is one person on whom it can be relied to speak the truth in My Best Friend’s Wedding, at least when it comes to the culinary arts, it is Julianne “Jules” Potter (Julia Roberts).  She is a food critic in New York City and she is waiting for her order so that she can give her terse opinion on the fare.  At the table with her is one of her best friends and editor, George Downes (Rupert Everett).  Once she gives the thumbs up to her meal, she checks her messages and listens to a frantic message from her ex-boyfriend and all-time best friend, Michael O’Neal (Dermot Mulroney).  He has something important to tell her, reminding her to call him back at any time of the day.  Something about these words takes Jules back to when she had dated Michael.  It had been her that had ended the relationship, but they stayed close afterwards, traveling together and staying in each other’s lives as much as possible.  A while ago, they had made the vow that if they were both unmarried by the age of twenty-eight, they would get hitched.  Her birthday is within weeks, and George suggests this could be the reason for the calls.  Upon finally getting in touch, she learns something different: he is getting married to the twenty-year-old college student, Kimberly “Kimmy” Wallace (Cameron Diaz).  Once Jules recovers from falling off her bed, she agrees, with some trepidation, to come to Chicago for the ceremony and all the festivities, which is to take place over the coming weekend.  With George accompanying her to the airport, she vows to break up the couple and claim Michael for her own.  While George does preach some caution, his main advice is to be honest.  Unfortunately, this is not followed.  Upon landing, prepared to despise everything about Kimmy, Jules is further flummoxed by Kimmy’s trusting nature and being asked to be the maid of honor.  Jules accepts, but with the naivete she senses from Kimmy, Jules believes she will make short work of her romantic rival.  Conversely, it proves more difficult.  Every underhanded trick Jules attempts backfires, such as when she takes Kimmy and Michael to a karaoke bar.  Kimmy had related her mortal fear of performing in public.  Since this had been a favorite pastime of Jules’ and Michael’s, Jules assumes that Kimmy’s reticence will sour his opinion of his bride-to-be.  Instead, her caterwauling endears everyone in the bar to her.  The breakthrough comes when Jules finds out that after they are married, Kimmy plans to quit college and follow Michael around the country, who works as a sportswriter.  Seeing a pressure point, Jules works with Kimmy’s family, who own the Chicago White Sox, to offer Michael a job that would allow him to be more settled and for Kimmy to stay in school.  When the proposal is given to Michael, he is hurt by the fact that they went behind his back to make the arrangements.  Yet, once again, Kimmy displays her good character in taking the blame for the scheme and her and Michael right the wedding ship.  This time, Jules turns to George for help.  He flies to Chicago for moral support, repeating the need for honesty.  Instead, being on the cusp of revealing her feelings, Jules announces that she and George are engaged.  This is bigger deal due to the fact that he is gay.  Nonetheless, he plays his role and does succeed in making Michael jealous.  Before returning to New York, George politely reiterates his earlier advice.  Yet again, it goes ignored.  This time, Jules goes into the office of Walter Wallace (Philip Bosco), owner of the White Sox, to send an email to Michael’s boss in the guise of Walter requesting assistance in getting Michael to join the organization.  Later at Michael’s hotel room, he gets a call from his boss saying that he had been fired.  Once more, he accuses Kimmy of meddling in his affairs.  Despite the ceremony being the following day, he is determined to call off the wedding.  However, he is present at the brunch, not being sure what to say to those gathered.  The same goes for Kimmy, and with Jules acting as a go-between, it is evident that they still care for one another.  Further, he changes his mind, and this is the moment Jules picks to finally admit that she is in love with him.  She finishes with a kiss, which is not returned but witnessed by Kimmy.  Kimmy runs from the scene and Michael goes after her, with Jules going after him.  Jules finally catches up with Michael in the train station.  It being the place where he proposed to Kimmy, it shows Jules where his heart lies.  Once she apologizes for all her misdeeds, she fans out across the city to locate Kimmy, finding her in a bathroom stall at the baseball field.  Once more, Jules eats crow, and she is able to get them to the church in time for the wedding.  As Kimmy and Michael leave for their honeymoon, he stops to give Jules a goodbye hug.  We close with George crashing the still happening reception and him and Jules dancing.

Speaking of dancing, there are some pretty rotten things done by Jules in My Best Friend’s Wedding around which she has to dance at the end.  I daresay I was shocked at moments by her behavior.  They say that one should not let anything stand in the way of love, but this is extreme at times.  When Jules types the email that gets Michael fired, I silently begged for her not to send it.  As awful are her actions, they highlight the goodness of Kimmy and Michael.  With Kimmy, I was struck by her willingness to trust.  Because Michael has confidence in Jules, so does Kimmy.  It is a trait every Christian could use more of when it comes to their relationship with God.  He will never give us anything beyond our capacity, and it is always for our benefit.  It is beyond our comprehension, too, which makes putting our faith in Him harder, at times, but worthwhile.  Kimmy is rewarded for her actions in the end by marrying the man she loves, but our ultimate prize is eternity in Heaven.  As for Michael, my favorite moment comes in the train station and Jules admits to all her conniving.  He is understandably upset at first, but then he expresses his flattery over anyone going to such lengths for him out of love.  That is a beautiful sentiment.  As stated a moment ago, so much of what God does for us is beyond our understanding and unseen.  It is incomprehensible to Michael that his best friend would do such things to him, but he eventually comes to accept it for the well-intentioned, if miscalculated, gestures they are.  With God, nothing is miscalculated.  A hypothetical I sometimes think about is what God does for us without our knowledge.  The hypothetical are all the things He is stopping from hurting us that we take for granted.  Obviously, Jules has more selfish motives for what she does, but her heart is in the right place.  As long as your heart is with God, yours will be, too.

I expected a heartfelt movie with My Best Friend’s Wedding, which I had not seen until this evening.  I knew about it from reputation, and its soundtrack became quite popular in the late 1990s.  What I did not expect were the romantic comedy conventions it bucks.  This alone is enough to merit a view, if you have not already done so.