Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that The Next Best Thing is a 2000 drama that asks how we as a society define "family" in an age when the once completely shunned LGBTQ community is gaining rights and acceptance. A straight woman in her 40s wants a child. Dumped by a cad and grieving for a friend lost to AIDS, she and her gay best friend have drunken sex (not shown). He commits to being a full-time father when she gives birth to a son, and all is well until she falls in love six years later, at which time lawyers get involved. Adults smoke and drink. AIDS and gay sex are discussed. Expect to hear "a--hole," "hell," "faggot," "s--t," and "bitch."
Sexual
Content
Robert and Abby get drunk and have sex (only kissing is shown). Adults kiss. Gay sex is discussed. Tops of a woman's breasts and her thonged buttocks are seen. A women is seen in a sheer bra. A man is shirtless.
Violence
A woman takes her 6-year-old son away from the man who has acted as his father since birth.
Language
"S--t," "hell," "a--hole," "faggot," "bimbo," "sperm," "screw," "bitch," "punk," "queens" (referring to effeminate gay men), "booger."
Social
Behavior
Even angry people will eventually make good decisions about child care and custody if they truly care about the child's welfare. A man makes a mock racist comment, referring to a "chocolate-covered peanut gallery."
Consumerism
Not applicable
Drugs / Tobacco /
Alcohol
Adults drink alcohol, sometimes to excess. Both Abby and Robert drink too many martinis, leading them to have sex for the first and only time. The diet drug fen-phen is mentioned. During childbirth pain, a woman screams, "Give me every drug you've got!" A reference is made to a man serving time for drug possession.
