My enjoyment of seeing The Best Man in 1999 predated the founding of this site; as a consequence, I never got around to writing about the film here. Equally unfortunate was the fact that last year’s sequel, The Best Man Holiday escaped my notice, and by the time I was ready to check it out at the multiplex, it had come and gone.
So when I saw it was premiering on cable (HBO) this past weekend, without hesitation I settled in and watched it.
As per usual, I am not the best of synposizing plot, etc., so for those interested, here is the official film description from the studio, Universal Pictures:
After nearly 15 years apart, Morris Chestnut, Taye Diggs, Regina Hall, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Nia Long, Harold Perrineau, Monica Calhoun and Melissa De Sousa reprise their career-launching roles in The Best Man Holiday, the long-awaited next chapter to the film that ushered in a new era of comedy. When the college friends finally reunite over the Christmas holidays, they will discover just how easy it is for long-forgotten rivalries and romances to be ignited (Source: Universal Pictures).
I hope that is enough of a teaser/lead in for you 🙂 Pretty vague, I know, but in this case I think it is best to know as little as possible about the plot ahead of time (lest you become spoiled with one or two developments).
These aforementioned “spoiler” do indeed lead to a pronounced level of mawkishness as the final acts of the film play out, but I was moved by it/them, in spite of myself. It will not surprise me, however, if many viewers are a little put off by the direction the story takes. Considered yourself duly warned – there is a level of sentimental melodrama to be had. In fact, as elements of the story were being revealed to me in the viewing, thoughts DID go through my head about how the filmmakers would manage to “go there” while leaving the remaining balance of the narrative rather lighthearted.
Sequels are funny, fickle things – stray too far from the formula of what made the original successful, and you lose your audience; stay too close to the original and there is that “been there, done that” felling which leads to equal disappointment. Luckily, The Best Man Holiday escapes this fate. In the 15 plus years since we last saw them, the characters did a lot of growing up, and are knee deep into early middle age and all the joy and pain that comes with that. But in the end it was still an entertaining evening at the movies.
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