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MOVIE REVIEW
Friends with Money
Starring: Catherine Keener, Jennifer Aniston, Frances McDormand, Joan Cusack
Written and Directed by: Nicole Holofcener
Sony Pictures Classics
"I'm worried about Olivia. She's the only one of our friends not married. She's a pothead, a maid."
Money: so many topics of discussion emanate from that word. How to get it, keep it, manage it. Live with it or without it. Needs. Wants. Too little. Never too much. Like politics and religion, money is one of those topics one rarely discusses and for women it is particularly challenging to face issues regarding money or the lack of money.
In this dark comedy Friends with Money, the focus is on three affluent friends and one shall I say, less successful friend, Olivia (Aniston), and the complications and implications involved.
Friends with Money is a deeply thoughtful film that will appeal to analytical types and those who gravitate toward moments of melancholy. Maybe that is why I could empathize with Olivia and this openly profound film. It is sharp, focused and realistic. It is not perfect but with a realistic viewpoint and taut, witty script Friends with Money remains keenly observant. All the women have problems to some degree, though Olivia appears to be the one least directed and most flawed. Money has affected their marriages, their careers, how they see themselves and how they compete and fit in with their neighbors and in society. Olivia's travails with inappropriate relationships with men and a meaningless job illustrate the difficulties of finding happiness. Approaching forty, one realizes one should be at that position in one's life where career and personal life are fulfilling not still in the planning stages.
A superb cast and stellar script drives the film. Keener is self-deprecating and brilliant as she struggles with a failing marriage, McDormand is hilarious as a depressed and frustrated fashion designer, Cusack shines as the most together of the group, the one who "shrugs everything off" and Aniston (though we've seen her play these downtrodden somber roles before in Office Space and The Good Girl) does an admirable job in keeping her making her character richly layered, likeable and one the audience wants to see emerge victorious.
I watched the film at a matinee at an independent Boston theatre with a crowd of people and many remarked how depressed they were on the way out. My favorite Holofcener film, also starring Keener, Lovely and Amazing, focuses on three sisters and self-esteem and is remarkable with its sharp dialogue. Holofcener is a brilliant filmmaker and manages to fashion a window into the lives of women that is both honest and refreshing. Friends with Money's focus on the minutiae of these women's lives, their relationships to each other and to money make this film extremely fascinating.
Grade: ***
By Amy Steele
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