The Best Man (1999 film)

The Best Man

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Malcolm D. Lee
Produced by
Written by Malcolm D. Lee
Starring
Music by Stanley Clarke
Cinematography Frank Prinzi
Edited by Cara Silverman
Production
company
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release dates
  • October 22, 1999 (1999-10-22)
Running time
 120 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $9 million[1]
Box office $34,573,780

The Best Man is a 1999 American romantic comedy-drama film, written and directed by Malcolm D. Lee. It was produced by 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, with Lee's cousin, Spike Lee, serving as producer. The film stars Taye Diggs and Nia Long. A Christmas-themed sequel, The Best Man Holiday, was released on November 15, 2013 with a reunited cast.

Plot

Harper Stewart (Diggs) is a young man living in Chicago with his beautiful and devoted girlfriend Robin (Lathan). However, Harper has a professional life as an author and is on the verge of a major breakthrough. He is hesitant about committing to a woman. Harper's debut novel, Unfinished Business, has been selected by Oprah's Book Club, pretty much guaranteeing him a bestseller.

Harper travels to New York City, where his best friend Lance (Chestnut), a running back for the New York Giants, is getting married to a young lady named Mia (Calhoun), who is also an old friend by Harper's. Harper is picked up at the airport by his friend Murch (Perrineau), and they catch up in the car. Eventually they meet up with Jordan (Long), Harper's old what-could-have-been female friend who has obtained an advanced copy of his book and has been passing it around their inner circle of friends. Due to its autobiographical nature, Harper never intended for any of them to read "Unfinished Business" prior to the wedding. The guys meet up with Quentin (Howard), who congratulates Harper for the book. Harper chastises Quentin for not being able to settle down with work and with women.

Over the course of the weekend it is revealed that Quentin is the free spirited ladies' man, that Lance was the church-going star athlete and player with the ladies, Harper had a way with women and was an editor for the school newspaper, and Murch was the one who could never keep a secret. Through a series of flashbacks it is shown that Lance and Mia met through Harper and that Harper had a chance with Jordan while they were in college. Meanwhile, Murch has been stuck in a relationship with his longtime girlfriend and Mia's sorority sister Shelby (De Sousa) which none of the guys approve. Later on that night, Harper finds out that Lance has obtained a copy of his book and is eager to read it. This unsettles Harper who is now worried that Lance may discover that his to be wife Mia and Harper had a one-night stand several years ago.

Jordan confesses to reading the book and still having sexual chemistry with Harper, which she wants to explore that night. The two share a kiss in the church before leaving. The situation comes to a head later that night, when Quentin has a bachelor party planned for Lance. Murch has a moment where he stands up to Shelby and her controlling ways, earning the praise of the fellas. During the bachelor party, Harper is able to obtain Lance's copy of "Unfinished Business", to the disgust of Quentin who has already figured out Harper's secret. Also, Murch ends up falling for a stripper by the name of Candy (Hall). Lance realizes that his copy of the book is in Harper's coat, and suspicious, he quietly excuses himself to read the book.

While Lance reads the book, a flashback shows that Mia cheated on Lance and when Harper went to comfort Mia she decided to sleep with Harper to get back at Lance. Enraged, Lance snaps and nearly beats Harper to death (despite Harper's attempts to explain), culminating in Lance preparing to throw Harper over the balcony ledge. Quentin calmly manages to talk Lance out of it but Lance calls off the wedding. Quentin gives Harper a look of disapproval before leaving, as Harper has brought all of this on himself.

A beat-up and bruised Harper goes to meet up with Jordan. Harper expresses his anger for Jordan, blaming her for all the mess by circulating the book. Jordan, frustrated with Harper, reminds him that it was he who decided to air out his dirty laundry, and went as far as to lead Jordan on that they could've been something more. Frustrated, Jordan storms out of the room and Harper is left alone on her couch cuddled with his book. Robyn shows up at the airport and Harper is there to pick her up. She notices the cuts and bruises on Harper's face and Harper breaks down. He comes clean about the book, Lance, Mia and Jordan to Robyn. Taken aback, she begins to leave Harper. Harper begs her to stay and help him. Robyn stays and advises Harper she is only staying because of Mia, and this is Mia's wedding day.

They show up at the church for the wedding. Murch arrives with Candy, much to the chagrin of Shelby. When Shelby asks about Candy and Murch, Murch coldly breaks up with Shelby, realizing that he is not the one for her and she is bad for him. Lance finally shows up but tells the guys that he's only there to tell his parents the wedding is off. Everyone tries to stop Lance and Harper, encouraged by Robyn, runs inside the church and asks Lance to pray, which stops Lance momentarily.

Harper asks for forgiveness and tries telling Lance that Mia doesn't deserve this. Lance, realizing that Mia is the love of his life, begins to pray. He forces Harper to pray with him, and the two share a moment. As this is going on, Mia is freaking out about her wedding day. Jordan is about to tell Mia everything but Robyn intervenes and changes the conversation. An emotional Lance goes through with the wedding much to the delight of their friends.

Harper gives a heartfelt speech for Mia and Lance praising the special love that they have for one another. During the bouquet toss, Shelby pushes a bridesmaid out of the way and gets the bouquet. Quentin gets the leg garter. Later on, when everyone is dancing, Harper thanks Robyn for her help and asks her to marry him, to which she says yes. Jordan starts to cry and claps in approval. The film ends with everyone doing the electric slide.

In a post-credit scene, we see a hungover and half-naked Shelby waking up. Then, a hungover and half-naked Quentin wakes up (implying that they had sex). They look at each other and scream in disgust as they fall out of bed.

Cast

Reception

The film received mostly positive reviews from critics. The film review website Allmovie gave the film 3/5 stars, with reviewer Jason Clark stating that while the film has "occasional moments of ripe humor, but it fails to say anything new about troubled weddings or the experience of being an upwardly mobile African-American looking for love."[2] At Metacritic, the film averaged a favorable 61% rating from critics.[3] Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 72% positive rating based on reviews by 71 critics, with the site's consensus stating "With a strong cast and a host of well-defined characters, The Best Man is an intelligent, funny romantic comedy that marks an impressive debut for writer/director Malcolm D. Lee."[4] The film has earned a B+ average from users at the Yahoo! Movies site.[5]

Made on a relatively small budget of nine million dollars, the film went on to make over $34,000,000, nearly four times as much as it cost to produce the picture, by the end of its theatrical run.[1]

The film received numerous awards and accolades. Terrence Howard's performance in particular earned much praise from many film critics, and in hindsight The Best Man is considered to be his breakout film. Later, he made the jump to other films and to the TV series Law and Order: Los Angeles. Jason Clark in his Allmovie review even stated that although Taye Diggs does well in his first true starring role, Howard "commands the screen with such abandon that one secretly wishes the film could have been all about his oddly captivating character". All eight of the principal cast members received nominations for the film at the 2000 NAACP Image Awards, with Howard and Nia Long winning. The film itself also won Outstanding Motion Picture.

Soundtrack

The Best Man (soundtrack)
Soundtrack album by Various artists
Released October 12, 1999
Recorded 1998-1999
Genre Hip hop, R&B
Length 62:45
Label Sony
Producer Bonnie Greenberg (exec.), Lisa Brown (exec.)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [6]

The film's soundtrack, released October 12, 1999, peaked at number 2 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts, and number 16 on The Billboard 200 in 1999.

# Title Performers Time
1 "What You Want"* The Roots, Jaguar 4:16
2 "Let's Not Play the Game"* Maxwell 4:32
3 "After All Is Said and Done" Beyoncé, Marc Nelson 4:15
4 "Poetry Girl" Eric Benét 5:29
5 "Liar, Liar" Latocha Scott 4:41
6 "Best Man" Faith Evans 3:26
7 "Beautiful Girl" Kenny Lattimore 4:04
8 "Hit It Up" Sporty Thievz 3:39
9 "Turn Your Lights Down Low"* Bob Marley, Lauryn Hill 4:02
10 "Untitled" Me'shell Ndegeocello 4:08
11 "As My Girl" Maxwell 3:11
12 "Wherever You Go" Sygnature 5:31
13 "When the Shades Go Down" Allure 4:56
14 "The Best Man I Can Be"* Case, Ginuwine, RL, and Tyrese 6:29

(*): Indicates songs were released as singles

Awards and nominations

2000 Black Reel Awards

2000 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards

2000 Independent Spirit Awards

2000 NAACP Image Awards

References

  1. 1 2 "The Best Man (1999)". Box Office Mojo. IMDB. 2002-08-28. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
  2. ↑ Spike Lee (1999-10-22). "Allmovie Review". Allmovie.com. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
  3. ↑ "The Best Man". Metacritic. 1999-10-22. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
  4. ↑ "The Best Man". Flixster Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
  5. ↑ "The Best Man | Trailer and Cast - Yahoo! Movies". Movies.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on May 22, 2011. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
  6. ↑ Ruhlmann, William (1999-10-12). "The Best Man - Original Soundtrack : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
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