What happens at the end of My Best Friend's Wedding?

Julia Roberts doesn't get the guy. In 1997, that was a genuine shock for a major studio rom-com. Nearly thirty years on, it's exactly why the ending still works.

Here's how the final act plays out.

Jules confesses — and it doesn't work

After four days of increasingly chaotic scheming to break up her best friend Michael's (Dermot Mulroney) wedding to Kimmy Wallace (Cameron Diaz), Julianne "Jules" Potter (Roberts) finally tells him she's in love with him. She kisses him. He doesn't kiss her back. He loves Kimmy.

Every plan she tried had already backfired:

• The karaoke setup — Jules drags Kimmy onstage to embarrass her. Kimmy can't sing a note. The bar loves her anyway. Michael stares at his fiancée like she hung the moon.
• The fake engagement — Jules ropes in her gay friend George (Rupert Everett) to pose as her fiancé. George improvises a wildly romantic backstory and leads the entire rehearsal dinner in a rendition of "I Say a Little Prayer."
• The forged email — Jules uses Kimmy's father's computer to sabotage Michael's job. It nearly works. Then it unravels completely.

The bathroom scene

Jules chases Michael to Chicago Union Station, confesses everything, and he forgives her. They split up to find Kimmy, who's fled to Comiskey Park. In the women's bathroom, surrounded by onlookers firmly on Kimmy's side, Jules apologises and admits the truth: Michael loves Kimmy, not her. The wedding goes ahead.

At the reception, Jules gives a generous maid-of-honour speech. She tells the newlyweds they can borrow her and Michael's song — "The Way You Look Tonight" — until they find one of their own. She and Michael say goodbye. Both move on.

The dance

Then her phone rings. It's George. She turns around — and there he is, at the reception, having flown from New York to make sure she's not sitting alone in her lavender dress.

As George predicted earlier in the film: "Maybe there won't be marriage. Maybe there won't be sex. But by God, there'll be dancing."

They dance. Credits.

My Best Friend's Wedding grossed $299 million worldwide on a $38 million budget. The karaoke scene was filmed live — Cameron Diaz was genuinely terrified, and the worse she sang, the better the take got. Rupert Everett picked up a Golden Globe nomination. He deserved it.