By Alexandra Russell
Most kids grow up watching Disney movies and hearing nursery rhyme fairy tales from their parents, with all of these stories ending in happily ever after. Many people assume that once kids grow up, no more adult fairy tales will be available to them. This is why I’ve always been drawn to the romantic comedy genre: to me, rom-coms have always been the grown-up version of fairy tales. The audience can always count on the main couple ending up together in these films. The central couple is always well-developed. Despite their flaws, these protagonists are easy to root for, and watching characters develop throughout the film’s runtime is always fantastic. When the world is bleakest, rom-coms are always there as a source of fun and hope. Though most rom-coms do a good job at hiding their fairy tale roots, many of these stories can be linked back to classic fairy tales. From Pretty Woman and “Cinderella” to When Harry Met Sally and “The Beauty and the Beast,” fairy tales and rom-coms are always intertwined. They also always serve the same purpose: to provide people with joy and entertainment during the hardest of times.
The romantic comedy My Best Friend’s Wedding was released during the summer of 1997, and it quickly became both a critical and commercial box office hit. Though the film appeared similar to other romantic films that had populated the 1990s box office, My Best Friend’s Wedding set itself apart due to a few crucial factors. Firstly, the film’s central romantic pairing, Julianne and Michael, does not end up together despite the audience’s expectations. Secondly, the main protagonist, Julianne, is more complicated than most romantic comedy protagonists, which makes it difficult for general audiences to root for her. Lastly, “My Best Friend’s Wedding…was memorable in large part because of Julia Roberts’s friendship with her gay editor, George (Rupert Everett), who helps her through the ordeal of her best (male) friend’s wedding” (Horton 68). The friendship between George and Julianne is given as much space to develop as the relationship between Julianne and Michael. These differences could have made My Best Friend’s Wedding the black sheep of the rom-com family, but instead helped the film become one of the most memorable films in the genre. At first glance, My Best Friend’s Wedding does not appear to have any connections to any fairy tale, especially given that this story does not end in the traditional happily ever after. Upon further examination, My Best Friend’s Wedding shares many similarities with the Brothers Grimm’s “Snow White.” The characters of the film’s leading trio of Julianne, Michael, and Kimmy can easily be paired with counterparts from “Snow White.” Many of the film’s events can be linked to events in “Snow White.” These similarities in character and plot showcase that the roots of My Best Friend’s Wedding come from “Snow White.” However, what’s beautiful about My Best Friend’s Wedding is that it is not a scene-for-scene remake of “Snow White.” Instead, it expands on the characters we’ve grown up with, allowing these characters to evolve in new ways. By the time the final credits roll, each of the characters in the core trio has grown beyond how the Brothers Grimm originally wrote these characters. Though My Best Friend’s Wedding attempts to set itself apart from other romantic comedies and fairy tales, the film is in many ways a modern re-telling of the Brothers Grimm’s “Snow White” because many of the film’s characters share similarities with the characters from the original story. These similarities help the film beautifully expand on the tale of “Snow White” and its characters for a more nuanced version that can teach people valuable lessons while maintaining the spirit of the romantic comedy genre.
Part I: Relevant Genre Conventions for the Screwball Comedy
Though My Best Friend’s Wedding has been labeled as a romantic comedy, the film might be more accurately described as a screwball comedy film. This is because “the romantic comedy is primarily about the construction of the ideal romantic couple, while the screwball comedy is primarily about liberation” (Wood 296). Screwball comedies often feature larger-than-life female characters frequently portrayed as eccentric and crazy. These films usually pair these women with traditional and patient men who tame them by entering into a romantic relationship with them, which leads them to become calmer and less crazy. These screwball comedies of early Hollywood used physical comedy and the eccentric behaviors of the female protagonist to create the stories that occurred on-screen. This misogynistic portrayal of women is less present in My Best Friend’s Wedding, as the film follows Julianne’s poor choices with physical comedy, such as her falling over or having to chase Michael and Kimmy down on foot, to convey that they are wrong. In addition, the difference in Kimmy’s socioeconomic status versus Julianne’s and Michael’s is a recurring theme throughout the film, because it helps Julianne formulate many of her attempts to break Michael and Kimmy up. This is yet another staple of the screwball comedy that is present:
“[S]crewball comedies often pair an upper-class lover with one from the middle or working class, and their drastically differing ideas often provide the narrative’s conflict…it is not the working-class character who leaves his or her profession but the upper-class lover who leaves his or her wealthy lifestyle to make the union work. Finally, the attention to leisure in these films pokes fun at the frivolities of high society” (Marshall 11).
One of Michael and Kimmy’s main conflicts that Julianne uses to her advantage is about Michael’s work. The resolution is similar to that of a screwball comedy because Michael keeps his job as a journalist, which Kimmy ultimately chooses to accept. The film’s unusual ending is also reminiscent of a screwball comedy in that Julianne is liberated from her feelings for Michael. Its abnormal ending makes the film feel “thrilling,” by rewarding the audience for knowing that “the central pair are clearly incompatible” (Stevens 30). My Best Friend’s Wedding is a better version of Classical Hollywood’s screwball comedies, because it finally gives the female characters the respect they deserve. Rather than making them the butt of the joke, Julianne and Kimmy are taken seriously, which allows the love triangle they find themselves in to be the source of the film’s comedy.
Part II: Character Counterparts to Snow White
Though it might be hard at first to connect My Best Friend’s Wedding and “Snow White,” it is essential first to establish that the film is telling the “Snow White” story with the Evil Queen as the focus, rather than Snow White. Julianne is the counterpart of the Evil Queen, because she shares the same jealousy, anger, and scheming that the Evil Queen does, which informs many of her actions. She surprisingly falls perfectly into the age range for the Evil Queen in the Brothers Grimm tale: “Unsurprisingly, most recent screwball comedies maintain this norm, as the average age of the lead actors in My Best Friend’s Wedding, Bridget Jones’ s Diary, Intolerable Cruelty (2003), and The Break- Up (2006) is thirty-five” (Marshall 14). In addition, Julianne’s goal of getting Michael for herself is unexpectedly similar to the Evil Queen’s goal of being the fairest in all the land. Julianne is somewhat driven by her insecurity about being unmarried at age 28 and dealing with the possibility of growing old alone, similar to the Evil Queen’s fears about aging. Julianne’s goal puts her into direct competition with Kimmy, the Snow White counterpart, which causes her to go to evil lengths to get what she wants. By placing the Evil Queen as the focus, the audience spends more time with Julianne and can understand her actions, even if unjustified. However, “Snow White” and My Best Friend’s Wedding deviate from their treatment of the Evil Queen at the end of the story. “Snow White” kills off the Evil Queen character, while Julianne is allowed to redeem herself for the damage she’s done. This choice for Julianne’s trajectory as a protagonist enables her to become more nuanced as a character.
Michael is the Prince Charming character in this story, as he is the man who ends up with the Snow White counterpart. Like Prince Charming, Michael often comes off as elusive and hard to read. Michael is one of the characters the audience knows very little about, but one thing that My Best Friend’s Wedding adds to the character is his indecisive nature. Throughout the film, Michael internally struggles to choose between Kimmy and Julianne, while he faces an external struggle over what to do about his job once he’s married. Michael’s character trajectory is to become more decisive, which helps him make the harder choices in his life. Michael ends up choosing the Snow White counterpart of the film, Kimmy, similar to Prince in the Brothers Grimm tale: “I cannot live without seeing Snow White. I will honor and cherish her as if she were my beloved” (Grimm 101). Because Michael is less of a focus in the film, he ends up being quite similar to the Prince. He still undergoes some change, but ends the film as the character most like their counterpart because he maintains that exact elusive nature. Regardless, he ends up in a better place; he is now more confident in his decisions.
Finally, Kimmy is the counterpart to Snow White because she carries the same naivety and doe-eyed innocence. Kimmy’s youth puts her at a disadvantage against Julianne from the beginning. Still, she shows glimpses of more agency than she initially lets on: “He’s got you on a pedestal and me in his arms” (Hogan 18:14-18:19). Kimmy attempts to be nice like her “Snow White” counterpart. Kimmy’s trajectory for the film is learning to stand up for herself and draw boundaries with people. The competition with Julianne brings this new side out of Kimmy because she is forced to reconcile with being taken advantage of by another person. Kimmy is unaware of the full extent of Julianne’s plotting against her, but her sense of Julianne’s true colors expands until she can no longer ignore her intuition. Kimmy entirely abandons her naivety after seeing Michael and Julianne kissing, giving her the push to stand up to Julianne and win back Michael. Kimmy ends the film a far cry from the typical Snow White, as she has developed personal agency that the character was never able to achieve in the Brothers Grimm tale.
Part III: Shared Events
The structure of My Best Friend’s Wedding is similar to that of“Snow White,” so many events in each of these stories can be linked together to follow the same story progression. Julianne and Kimmy’s first meeting is an excellent example of this. When Julianne arrives to meet Michael at the airport, she is horrified by his impending marriage but pretends not to be. His wedding comes on the heels of them both turning 28, the age that they swore they’d marry each other if both were still unmarried. Julianne’s 28th birthday is a reminder that she is getting older and becoming less desirable each year. At the beginning of “Snow White,” the Evil Queen similarly asks her mirror who the fairest in the land is, because she fears becoming less desirable as she ages: “‘But Snow White is a thousand times more fair than you!’ When the Queen heard these words, she trembled and turned green with envy” (Grimm 96). Asking for this reassurance is meant to protect the Queen’s pride, but it makes her more vain and obsessive over her looks. Being replaced by a younger woman propels the Evil Queen’s crusade to destroy Snow White, leading to the story’s events. The Evil Queen fails to recognize that destroying Snow White will not help her regain her status.
When Julianne meets Kimmy, she shares feelings similar to those of the Evil Queen. Though Kimmy is kind-hearted to Julianne and desperate to befriend her, her youthful beauty is thrown in Julianne’s face as a reminder of how old she is becoming and the dwindling romantic options around her. Worst of all, a much younger and prettier woman has come along to take the thing that she seems to think she’s always wanted: Michael. Michael’s impending marriage symbolizes to Julianne that she is no longer the fairest woman in his eyes. This loss drives her actions for the rest of the story, as “[t]he woman’s obsessiveness drives her into increasingly selfish and irresponsible behavior that takes no account of other people’s feelings and which she ultimately recognizes as a betrayal of her own finer ones” (Wood 299). The engagement sets Julianne off on her own quest, as she reclaims her status as the fairest woman in Michael’s eyes by breaking up Kimmy and Michael’s engagement. Julianne starts developing her Evil Queen persona in this moment, as she fails to consider how her actions will hurt Kimmy.
Though Julianne recognizes how horrible this goal is, she rationalizes this through her belief that her and Michael are meant to be together, which pushes her forward in continuing with her plans. In the Brothers Grimm’s “Snow White,” the Evil Queen attempts to harm Snow White two times before she uses the poison apple that puts Snow White into a death-like state. In My Best Friend’s Wedding, Julianne similarly uses two big schemes to attempt to break Michael and Kimmy before she finally confesses her feelings. The first scheme is milder than the other two: Julianne takes Michael and Kimmy to a karaoke bar. This is one of Michael’s favorite activities, but it terrifies Kimmy. Julianne aims to embarrass Kimmy by showing her poor singing skills. However, Julianne’s “plan backfires when Kimmy refuses to be shamed, gamely sticking it out and belting out the final verses to an appreciative crowd while Michael looks on adoringly” (Meslow 122). After the Evil Queen’s first scheme to kill Snow White fails to work, her failure pushes her towards a more intense method and fails to deter her from stopping what she’s doing. Julianne is in a different state after her karaoke plan fails. She feels more remorse, because seeing Kimmy’s bravery makes Julianne respect her more. What always brings back to her Evil Queen territory are her feelings for Michael. Every time she convinces herself that she needs to let him go, he always reels her back in. Seeing Michael as in love with Kimmy as he is in this scene should be enough for Julianne to walk away, but she persists.
The karaoke scene is big for Kimmy, as it reveals Kimmy’s hidden courage and self-confidence. While Snow White of the Brothers Grimm story would have likely run away from the Evil Queen’s challenge, Kimmy embraces it. Her intentions for accepting the challenge are also pure-hearted: she doesn’t do it to prove Julianne wrong but does it because of her love for Michael. She knows he enjoys doing karaoke, so she is willing to sacrifice her dignity and compromise for him. This scene is one of the first scenes where Snow White and Kimmy begin to differ. Snow White never builds courage or confidence in herself, but adding these qualities to Kimmy helps the character grow up and ready her for marriage. This scene beautifully foreshadows Michael’s final decision between the two women. Though Michael appreciates Julianne and everything that comes with their friendship, it’s clear once Kimmy starts singing that he is truly in love with her and she is the one he will ultimately choose. Until this scene, the film gives its audience few glimpses into Michael’s true thoughts. He is like the Prince in the Brothers Grimm story: an elusive presence we know very little about. This scene gives us a lot of insight into where Michael’s true feelings lie. Despite Julianne not being able to recognize Michael’s feelings here, the audience knows what his decision will be long before the choice is ultimately made. Though Michael experiences the least amount of change among the film’s core trio, his character changes begin here as the wheels start turning in his head about making the hard choices. He is not ready to make this choice, because his aloofness keeps him from recognizing Julianne’s feelings for him. This allows the tension between the main trio to continue building up.
The pre-existing expectation in watching My Best Friend’s Wedding is that Julianne and Michael will end up together. It is the idealistic, fairy tale promise of romantic comedies: no matter what awful things are done along the way, the main couple will end up together. Unlike other romantic comedies, “My Best Friend’s Wedding has Julianne do similarly awful things to blameless people, but without the comforting assurances that it’ll all be worth it when Michael realizes that they should have been together all along” (Meslow 123). This is where My Best Friend’s Wedding deviates from the genre’s expectations, which allows the film to showcase its strongest similarities to “Snow White.” “Snow White” and My Best Friend’s Wedding both utilize metaphorical deaths as the climax to their stories. For “Snow White,” it is the moment that Snow White bites into the poisoned apple from the Evil Queen and falls into a death-like sleep: “But no sooner had she taken a bit when she fell down on the ground dead” (Grimm 100). The Evil Queen “kills” Snow White, which helps her regain her status as the fairest in all the land. In My Best Friend’s Wedding, a metaphorical death similarly occurs when Julianne finally confesses her feelings to Michael and kisses him, which Kimmy witnesses. Julianne appears victorious, as she achieved her goal like the Evil Queen. Julianne’s betrayal of Kimmy leads Julianne into becoming her most Evil Queen like state, which shatters any remaining illusion the audience might have had about Julianne being a good person. However, this is the moment that My Best Friend’s Wedding fully deviates from “Snow White,” as Julianne immediately suffers the consequences for her actions by not getting what she wants.
After witnessing Julianne and Michael’s kiss, Kimmy runs off. The illusion of Julianne and Michael ending up together is taken off the table for good because Michael chases after Kimmy. The once indecisive Michael finally chooses between the two women. In shattering the film’s central love triangle, Julianne experiences a metaphorical death of sorts as she faces the proper consequences for her actions: “In the predominant 19th-century bourgeois genre, the novel of adultery, the “third” is usually a younger man and, given that it is a romantic genre, we side with his desire and tend not to see it as destructive, but it too must end. What puts a stop to adulterous couples? Death” (Segal 238). As Julianne chases down Michael, she calls her friend George, desperate for him to validate what she’s done. Instead, George gives Julianne a reality check about how wrong she’s been: “Jules, you are not the one…You have a small, but distinct window of opportunity to do the right thing” (Hogan 1:22:01-1:22:11). This phone call opens the flood gates for Julianne’s remorse. Her goal shifts, as she realizes she is in the wrong and works to bring back Kimmy for the wedding so that she can apologize properly.
Upon realizing that she’s wrong for what she’s done, Julianne begins to move away from the Evil Queen persona. This occurs because George helps Julianne recognize that Michael has made his choice, and she needs to accept that. This acceptance comes with conditions: now that she has screwed up Michael and Kimmy’s wedding, she must be the one to track down Kimmy and bring them back together. When Julianne and Kimmy confront each other at the baseball game, Julianne appeals to her in a new light. This time, she is apologetic and humble, as she admits to her wrongdoing and jealousy: “I lost. He doesn’t love me. He loves you” (Hogan 1:30:36-1:30:37). This confrontation is a big moment for both Julianne and Kimmy, because it leads to both characters becoming better versions of themselves. Julianne’s apology is a far cry from her Evil Queen persona, because she humbles herself to Kimmy, something she never would have done earlier in the film. Kimmy has also evolved past the doe-eyed, naive Snow White character she was initially. In this scene, Kimmy and Julianne’s previous dynamic has reversed, with Kimmy in control for once. She speaks more confidently than ever, as she clearly outlines Julianne’s wrongdoings: “You kissed him! At my parents’ house! On my wedding day!” (Hogan 1:30:01-1:30:07). While Julianne’s betrayal deeply hurts Kimmy, it helps her in the long run, because it pushes her to stand up for herself against Julianne. The betrayal makes Kimmy realize she’s stronger than she ever knew. Kimmy learns the lessons Snow White could never grasp, which helps her get what she wants and end the story in a more empowered place.
After accepting Julianne’s apology, Kimmy and Michael marry, mirroring the happy ending Snow White and the Prince experience at the end of “Snow White.” However, the endings of the two stories share more than just that in common. Both stories feature dancing, as the Evil Queen is forced to watch Snow White and the Prince bask in wedded bliss. In “Snow White,” the Evil Queen dances to her death: “Iron slippers had already been heated up over a fire of coals…She had to put on the red hot iron shoes and dance in them until she dropped to the ground dead” (Grimm 102). My Best Friend’s Wedding also ends with dancing, but Julianne’s ending is not as painful as the Evil Queen. In this finale, Julianne reunites with George and dances with him instead. This moment is less of a punishment and more of a redemptive moment for Julianne: “This is how My Best Friend’s Wedding ends… The erotic pair departs in the Rolls—to what one suspects might be a quite problematic future—and the friendship pair is reconstituted through the replacement of sex by dance and of the couple based on one kind of difference” (Segal 239). Rather than finding a romantic connection in the film’s final scene, George and Julianne’s friendship is strengthened, allowing one of the film’s friendships to remain intact. The dance continues the symbolic death of Julianne’s Evil Queen persona, representing her continuing to choose to be good again. Julianne’s lack of a romantic connection achieves the delicate balance of making sure Julianne is not rewarded for her evil actions while keeping her from ending the film completely alone: “‘The point of the movie is that the person you love the most doesn’t have to be the person you’re sleeping with…it might be your best social friend…And it’s not a crime to say that that love was the most important thing to her” (Meslow 126). This makes the film’s ending feel satisfying while ensuring that Julianne’s redemptive journey continues.
Once the credits roll, the leading trio finds themselves in entirely different places from their “Snow White” counterparts. Julianne is no longer the Evil Queen because the loss of Michael helped her regain her empathy. Julianne’s ending with George suggests that the Evil Queen is gone for good and that she will continue to be a better person. Michael experiences less change because his aloofness and evasiveness both remain present. Michael’s most significant difference is his decisiveness because he finally chooses between Kimmy and Julianne. The ending of Michael and Julianne’s romantic future ultimately leads both characters to better places because they have “become more caring and wiser individuals because of their encounter” (Horton 69). Michael’s marriage to Kimmy puts him on the same path to redemption as Julianne. Similar to Julianne, Kimmy ends the film departing a lot from her Snow White counterpart. Kimmy has built up her agency and taught her to stand up for herself. Kimmy no longer has Snow White’s naivety, but she retains her good heart and kindness because she finds it in herself to forgive Julianne.
On the outside looking in, My Best Friend’s Wedding appears to be a romantic comedy, the modern version of a fairy tale. However, it becomes clear this story is anything but. It was a story about “how all is not fair in love and war. It was a romantic comedy that wasn’t very romantic” (Meslow 116). Instead, My Best Friend’s Wedding is a story about the real world and the imperfect people who live in it. Because My Best Friend’s Wedding is told with Julianne as the focus, the audience is able to understand the motives behind her actions. This perspective, combined with Julia Roberts’s acting choices, helps the audience see that Julianne is not truly bad like the Evil Queen. She just fears losing something important as she is getting older and does not know how to cope with that. This is why My Best Friend’s Wedding differs from an ordinary fairy tale: it features a level of nuance and redemption rarely found in Brothers Grimm fairy tales. It does not tell a story that is morally black and white; instead, it features characters who make mistakes but are given the opportunity to grow from them. Though the film begins as a “Snow White” tale, My Best Friend’s Wedding sets itself apart because it expands past the fairy tale and romantic comedy genres to create a story rooted in redemption and growth.
Works Cited
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. “Snow White.” The Classic Fairy Tales, edited by Maria Tatar, W.W. Norton & Company, 1999, 95-102.
Hogan, P. J.,, et al. My Best Friend’s Wedding. Special edition. Culver City, California, Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, 2001.
Horton, Andrew. “Sound Comedy: American Screwball Romantic Comedy, Then and Now.” Laughing Out Loud: Writing the Comedy-Centered Screenplay, 1st ed., University of California Press, 2000, pp. 64–71. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.2711623.9. Accessed 4 Dec. 2024.
Marshall, Kelli. “Something’s Gotta Give and The Classical Screwball Comedy.” Journal of Popular Film and Television, vol. 37, no. 1, 7 Apr. 2009, pp. 9–15, https://doi.org/10.3200/jpft.37.1.9-15.
Meslow, Scott. “My Best Friend’s Wedding (And the Deconstruction of America’s Greatest Rom-Com Heroine).” From Hollywood With Love: The Rise And Fall (And Rise Again) Of The Romantic Comedy, 2022, pp. 108–128.
Segal, Naomi. “Running in circles: My Best Friend’s Wedding after 19 years.” Studies in Gender and Sexuality 17.3 (2016): 237-240.
Stevens, Kyle. “Romantic comedy and the virtues of predictability.” New Review of Film and Television Studies, 14 Jan 2020, pp. 28-48, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17400309.2019.1664059.
Wood, Robin. “On and Around My Best Friend’s Wedding.” Hollywood From Vietnam To Reagan…And Beyond, 2012, pp. 295–308.
