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Back Shelf Beauties
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Friends With Money Jennifer Aniston stars as Olivia - a thirtysomething lost soul pothead who makes a living cleaning houses after she left her well paying teaching gig for reasons that will become apparent throughout the movie (how's that for not giving away the plot?). She's the oddball among her group of friends as the one who isn't married and doesn't have financial wealth. Her pal Jane (Frances McDormand) is a fashion designer who is becoming more irritable by the day, even though the business seems to be a success. Another friend, Christine (Catherine Keener), is facing troubles in her marriage as she and her husband, David (Jason Isaacs) start some home construction that irks the neighbors, and attempt to write a movie together. Finally, Franny (Joan Cusack) completes the group, as the woman with a wonderful relationship with her husband, Matt (Greg Germann), and the kind of wealth we would all dream of, which makes her feel kind of guilty. Writer/director Nicole Holofcener makes Friends With Money into a movie that evolves rather than one with strict and traditionally defined plotlines, so it takes awhile to get going (A long while. A long long while. Too long of a while.). The audience is dropped into the middle of these 4 lives, so, for the first 30 minutes, moviegoers are required to sit there and take it all in to figure out who each person is and what drives them. Holofcener lets the characters display their personalities in what appear to be mundane events like dinner, getting ready in the morning, working and more, which highlights her strong dialogue and the natural way each of the women interact with each other. Eventually, and possibly a little too late in the movie, we start to get it, and the drama gets turned on as we wonder if Christine and her husband will ever get back together, or start to hope we will find out what is bothering Jane and driving her mad, or try to decipher how Olivia ended up in her situation and whether or not she wants to get out. In that sense, Holofcener does a good job of letting us experience life along with the ladies, but only intermittently captivates the audience. We need more of the good stuff, and less of the mundane, since this is a movie instead of real life. Surprisingly, the most entertaining running gag in this movie about women involves one of the male characters. Holofcener saves her best writing for Simon McBurney, who plays Jane's husband, Aaron. While the two of them have a good marriage, all of their friends have suspicions as to Aaron's sexual preference, a running joke that is quite funny as more and more men make passes at Aaron, or the friends exchange knowing glances when he does something they think is a sign. McBurney is brilliant in the role, never falling into an offensive stereotype, but embracing the more comical behavior to keep us interested in the film. Of course, he is just a minor character in a movie with great female lead actors. McDormand, as always, is brilliant and tragically funny as Jane. Her emotional outbursts are part pitiful, part hilarious, and part petty as we watch her character sink further and further into what we must assume is some sort of depression. Yet, McDormand also shows us Jane's strength as she helps her other friends when they need it most. Keener is captivating as the wife facing the demise of her marriage, and also has some great moments to shine as Christine interacts with the angry neighbors. Holofcener gives her the best role and some of the best dialogue as we watch her spar with the husband and neighbors. Meanwhile, Aniston might be the big eye-popping star, but she only gets one great scene among a bunch of blasé ones. She's fantastic as we discover what event has driven her into her current life morass, but Holofcener doesn't give her more than that one moment. Finally, I have to object to Holofcener's ending for Friends With Money. Without giving it away, I feel Holofcener took away the trait that made Olivia unique among her friends in a wrongheaded attempt to give Olivia a supposedly happy ending, which seems to run counter to one of the movie's themes. She could have built up to it better than she did, so springing it on the audience makes us wonder what was the point? The audience wants to see Olivia bounce back and take control of her life, but I don't think this ending gives it to her. 2 Waffles (Out Of 4) Copyright 2006 - WaffleMovies.com
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