The happy couple: Abbie and Robert

The Next Best Thing
(2000, 108 min, United States, John Schlesinger)

One gay male plus one straight female equals the same recipe used by Hollywood to get mainstream America to see the gentler kind of homosexual America. Abbie (Madonna) has a biological clock that's almost stopped ticking. She realizes she can't go on the way she's been living, boyfriend to boyfriend. After a messy night spent totally drunk with her gay friend Robert (Rupert Everett), she realizes later on that she's pregnant. Gay Robert's going to have a baby? Sure, he accepts that fact and they both agree to raise the kid together. Enter a love interest (Ben, played by Benjamin Bratt) for Abbie and tensions arise over who the real father is. And of course, Robert doesn't have his own love interest for fear of shocking mainstream America too much. The film's not a total bomb, but it's not very original either (the same line as Will and Grace, My Best Friend's Wedding and The Object of My Affection).