I sometimes wish the filmmaker, Nicole Holofcener, would change her name
entirely. To something like Nicole
Watch-My-Movies-Because-They-Are-All-Freaking-Awesome-OK? Like her previous
"Lovely & Amazing," "Friends With Money" is another among her ... moregreat
female-centric movies (not chick flick, thank you very much) in which women are
actually complicated people who don't think about designer shoes and Richard Gere and how to win a guy in 10 days. It's something
of the opposite, showing how trite and ridiculous those attempts can be.
Holofcener's wry social comedy concerns a group of Angeleno female friends, all
of various economic strata, and the tension, humor and sadness that can come
from such cliques. Against a talented ensemble of Joan Cusack, a terrifically acerbic Frances McDormand, and the always interesting Catherine Keener, Aniston is equally powerful as the
youngest of her friends, and the prettiest (in the way that every guy wants to
pounce on her). But she is also, in many ways, the most insecure and depressed.
Leaving a teaching job, she's now working as a maid, and finds herself in all
sorts of demeaning situations, financially and sexually. Some had a problem with
how weak her character comes across, but she's truly just depressed. She's
giving in to experience, even as negative as it is, making her the most poignant
character in the movie.
