Friends With Money DVD Review

"Friends With Money" reviews

DVD

Friends With Money

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2006-09-22 15:55:43

Provider

DVD Review

Nicole Holofcener is seemingly preoccupied with women and their relationships with other women. Her first film, Walking And Talking, explored what occurs when a 20-something woman (Anne Heche) gets engaged – specifically the effect it has on her best pal (Catherine Keener) and the way in which the old friends interact.

Friends With Money deals with four older women, three of whom are, as the title affirms, married and well-off; one single, skint and frequently stoned. The crux of the film is Olivia (Jennifer Aniston), whose unsuccessful stint as a teacher has propelled her to seek employment as a maid and to accept a less than satisfying relationship with a personal trainer (Scott Caan). As for her friends, wealthy Franny (Joan Cusack) frets that her husband spends too much money on their kids; Christine (Keener) squabbles with her spouse and screenwriting partner; and Jane (Frances McDormand) is convinced that her fashion-obsessed husband must be gay. So depressed and sexless does she feel that eventually she decides to stop washing her hair. "What's the point?" she tells her husband. "It just gets dirty and you have to wash it all over again."

Great as McDormand is, though, the film is stolen, improbably, by Aniston, who encourages you to like her character rather than simply feeling sorry for her. And while nothing much happens to her, or her fellow stars, Friends With Money thrills thanks to its dialogue which slowly reveals the drifting, unsatisfying nature of its protagonists' neuroses-ridden lives.

Special features are comprised of: Commentary from writer/director Nicole Holofcener plus Behind The Scenes, Los Angeles Premiere and Sundance featurettes.