Madonna’s new movie “The Next Best Thing” shows how friendship and love can exist through all obstacles. Madonna’s character, Abbie, is a 30-something yoga instructor who is longing for the perfect man to meet, marry and have kids with. After being dumped by her boyfriend, who is in search for a more simplistic relationship, Abbie runs to the arms of Robert, (Rupert Everett) her homosexual best friend.Robert tries to console Abbie, yet in doing so, the two get excessively drunk together, which leads to an unintentional one-time affair. Half of Abbie’s wish has come true. She has the man, her best friend Robert, and now she is pregnant. Abbie does not expect a conventional relationship from Robert, and she gives him a choice in being either daddy or Uncle Robert. He chooses to be the father. The couple decides to raise their son as friends, and live accordingly. The movie jumps ahead six years and chronicles the relationship between Abbie, Robert, and their son Sammy. Eventually, dating, sleeping arrangements and marriage come into question, and the friends have to decide what is more important, their new opportunity for love, or the life that Sammy knows.The homosexual lifestyle plays a big role in this movie. It is, however, displayed realistically and not exaggerated like other movies. Nevertheless, it did follow the general strerotype of a gay man being the good-looking male, with the feminine voice, who also knows how to dress. This is a surprisingly good movie that moves along well. My only complaint was that six years were lost in the story line. For example, we see Madonna at different stages during her pregnancy, and then during her delivery. While on the delivery table, she lets out a bloodcurttling scream and we are suddenly thrust to Sammy’s sixth birthday party. Where did his infant and toddler years go? Did Robert change diapers? We don’t know these things.Madonna and Everett had an excellent on-screen chemistry. Their relationship was more like that of two sisters than platonic friends. In one instance Abbie is telling Robert she has a date, and he says “Great, I’ll be up to discuss wardrobe shortly.” You really believe in their situation and their feelings for each other. “The Next Best Thing,” also starring Neil Patrick Harris and Benjamin Bratt, opens in theaters Friday.