Darker than it has any right to be, Barry_Levinson and Valerie_Curtin's semiautobiographical tale provides some genuine moments of inspiration for its usually unchallenged lead performers Burt_Reynolds and Goldie_Hawn, but ultimately, the film can't reconcile the gulf between its dramatic and comedic moments. Posing the same can-a-friendship-survive-a-relationship question that would later be answered with a resounding "yes" by the feel-good hit When_Harry_Met_Sally, Best Friends is most interesting when it catches its characters in a state of comic self-delusion. Reynolds' sardonic sense of humor is put to good use in scenes involving the couple's extemporaneous marriage and their subsequent in-law encounters (featuring spry supporting turns from Jessica_Tandy, Barnard_Hughes, Keenan_Wynn, and Audra_Lindley). But when things get unremittingly ugly in the film's last third, the emotional and physical abuse seems to come out of nowhere, and what's meant as a bittersweet coda plays more like a smiley-face fastened atop a divorce agreement. Michael Hastings, Rovi

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