April 25, 2006

MOVIES: Friends With Money (Nicole Holofcener, 2006)

As is usually the case with Holofcener's movies, the writing is sharp and funny, and the acting impeccable. (Of course, let's face it, even I could get good performances out of a cast that includes Catherine Keener, Frances McDormand, Joan Cusack, and Jennifer Aniston.) But as is also usually the case, Holofcener's characters are so miserably unhappy that spending 90 minutes with them is a relentlessly unpleasant experience.

Our unhappy women this time around are Jane (McDormand), a successful designer of wildly overpriced women's clothing; Christine (Keener), a screenwriter whose professional and personal partnership with her husband is on the rocks; Franny (Cusack), who is so fabulously wealthy that her biggest problem is deciding which charity will get that extra $2 million she has lying about; and Olivia (Aniston), the only one in the group who is still single, and the only one who isn't rich (she's currently working as a maid).

The movie's biggest problem is that there's a key piece of back story missing: How did Olivia become part of this group of friends? She's a good 7-10 years younger than the other women, so it seems unlikely that they met in childhood or in college; she certainly can't afford to attend many of the charity events and banquets that they go to. Her inclusion in the group never makes any sense, and it's distracting.

As for the other women, well, mid-life crisis isn't any more interesting in women than it is in men, and while I can admire the skill with which McDormand immerses herself in Jane's depression and rage, or the perfection of Cusack's comic timing, I can't honestly say that I enjoyed the movie, or that it's worth recommending to anyone else.

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