Friends with Money
After giving up on teaching Olivia (Jennifer Aniston) has happily taken up a life of domestic servitude as a cleaning woman. This is worrisome to her friends Frannie (Joan Cusack), Jane (Frances McDormand) and Christine (Catherine Keener) seeing as how they are all affluent and Olivia is now doing a job that is entirely beneath them. They refuse to clean their own houses, much less someone else’s. This is basically the set up for a film that is about how everyone struggles with something no matter who they are.
Jane struggles with depression, while her friends secretly question whether or not her husband Aaron (Simon McBurney) may or may not be gay. Meanwhile Christine and her husband David (Jason Isaacs) are screenwriters, but while building an addition to their home find out how different they are and are unable to communicate. Even Frannie and husband Matt (Greg Germann) have trouble deciding which charity to give away their millions to.
One of the things that I like about this film is it’s portrayal of friendship. I love how this is a group of old friends who are each a little different from the rest, but there’s no obvious reason that they are friends. I especially enjoy how they discuss each other when they’re not around, like kicking around the idea of hiring Olivia as their personal cleaning lady or debating whether or not Aaron is gay. It’s the way people behave and comes through nicely in the screenplay. This script is incredibly tight and entirely truthful.
The ensemble cast really pulls it all together, especially the women. Frances McDormand does a great job, as does Catherine Keener. This is also another good performance by Jennifer Aniston. Even though she made the most out of The Break-Up this is easily her best film since The Good Girl. Quite frankly, I found her story to be the most easily relatable. I realize that the writing has a lot to do with it, but she brought it to life. She makes playing “normal” look very easy.
If you’re a fan of Nicole Holofcener’s film Lovely & Amazing, you will definitely like this one. Friends with Money is a little easier to get next to and is a more enjoyable story, mostly because the main character is a bit easier to sympathize with. Much like its predecessor, this film will find its audience lies more with women than men, but there is something to relate to here for everyone despite your gender.
The Grade
- Story: B+
- Acting: A
- Visuals: C+
- Originality: B-
- Enjoyability: A
- Overall: B+
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