Friends With Money

Being off Fridays is going to cost me money in the long run. It just seems wrong to waste a Friday – even more than a Saturday or Sunday.

We headed to Orange to see “Friends With Money.”

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time you know Helaine picks a movie, I pick a movie. She’s usually the one who picks the movies we like. I pick the ones we like less… a lot less… OK, we usually hate the ones I pick.

This was a Helaine day.

At the moment she’s on the couch, next to me. So I can ask, why this movie?

She says she was attracted to the movie by the cast.

She’s right. Joan Cusack, Frances McDormand, Jennifer Aniston and Catherine Keener make an excellent ensemble cast. And their acting in this movie was top notch. The problem is, where’s the story?

This is a movie about the relationship between four women; three married and one single. With money or without money, everyone had a life that was incomplete or unhappy… or both.

If you’re looking for a set-up/payoff, or some sort of satisfying conclusion, it’s just not there. These are little interrelated slices, not a full meal. I kept hoping for more.

Have you seen “Postcards From The Edge?” I’m asking because, for me, this movie suffered the same fate. It made me so uncomfortable, watching angst and personal tumult that were realistically portrayed, I couldn’t get to a point where I enjoyed it.

This is the second time I have seen Jennifer Aniston playing a person I felt sorry for, and uncomfortable with. As with “The Good Girl,” I thought she showed herself as an excellent actress, playing a role where she was ‘de-glamorized.’

2006 seems to be my year for Catherine Keener, who I’ve seen a bunch of times. The more I see her, the more I like her. Same for Frances McDormand and Joan Cusack.

None of these women are here because they’re twenty-something willowy sexpots. They’re here to be flawed and genuine, and they succeed individually even when the movie fails them collectively.

Helaine enjoyed the movie. I left feeling ambivalent.

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