Friends With Money Review

Movie

Friends With Money

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2007-04-04 22:20:17

Rating

3.5/5

Provider

CinemaSource

Review

Don't call this a chick-flick. Guys could learn a lot about women by watching this older, often funnier L.A. version of Sex in the City.

Story

Four girlfriends head into their near-40s and wonder if they'd even be friends if they met today. Frannie (Joan Cusack) is rich and happily married, trying to decide how to give away $2 million. Christine (Catherine Keener) is fighting with her co-screenwriting partner/husband (Jason Isaacs) about an addition to their house, and Jane (Frances McDormand) is a successful fashion designer who won't wash her hair--and has a husband (Simon McBurney) everyone thinks is gay. The youngest of the friends is Olivia (Jennifer Aniston), who's single, a pothead and a maid who goes through people's drawers. The other three worry about Olivia and set her up with handsome trainer (Scott Caan), but he ends up treating her as bad as all her past boyfriends. It isn't until she meets Marty (Bob Stephenson), an average-Joe living in a messy apartment, does she finally find some harmony.

Acting

No, Aniston isn't doing Rachel from Friends here, although it may look like that at first. Rachel would never take a vibrator out of a stranger's drawer and, well, you know. More, the actress revisits her Good Girl character, adding some additional, more hard-hitting layers. Some of the fights she has with Caan sound like they could have come right out of a spat she may have had with Brad Pitt. Oscar-winner McDormand is once again a wonder as a woman so filled with angst and anger she has no idea the effect she has on those around her. Keener, too, steps up as the screenwriter struggling with a failing marriage. In fact, all the relationships these women have hit home, mostly because this odd collection of stellar actresses seem to have a genuine and natural affinity for one another.

Direction

Writer/director Nicole Holofcener has captured a world of cross-economic friendships that may seem awkward but comes across as realistic. She has cast her alter-ego Keener in all three of her films, including Walking & Talking and Lovely & Amazing. This time Keener is a bit more hard-edged and frustrated and yet excruciatingly funny when she admits, ''I don't get SpongeBob.'' Holofcener has painted the men into the background very subtly but ultimately are unimportant to the friendships anyway. Some of the best moments are when the group is together, chatting and talking over each other, and that's why it's going to be unfairly compared to Sex and the City--girlfriends do get together in other cities, too. Friends with Money is just an enjoyable slice-of-life for couples of any kind.

Bottom Line

Hollywood.com rated this film 3 1/2 stars.

Movie

Friends With Money

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2006-05-23 00:00:00

Provider

MyMovies

Review

Director Nicole Holofcener's third film, "Friends With Money," continues her foray into the female psyche. Set in and around Los Angeles and Santa Monica, the film centres on four friends, three of which have financial security and one who is struggling to survive as a cleaner. Catherine Keener, Francis MacDormand, Joan Cusack and Jennifer Aniston head the all star cast and, complimented with a tight script, the actors put together some highly convincing performances. However, for all its merits "Friends With Money" fails to achieve a great deal. Holofcener seems obsessed with trying to ram home the old clichÃ© 'money doesn't equal happiness', and ultimately the issues that her characters embody aren't enough to draw a great deal of audience sympathy. While Holofcener spends the majority of the film highlighting the complexities that come with having an abundance of cash, she is also keen to show the hardships that Olivia (Jennifer Aniston) has to deal with as an 'out-of-relationship' housemaid. Therefore, despite having a fantastic cast and some tight writing, "Friends With Money" unfortunately fails to make an impact. At times it makes pleasurable viewing, with some genuinely amusing and heartfelt moments, but overall the subject will appear too superficial for the majority of audience members.

Movie

FRIENDS WITH MONEY

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2006-05-19 15:33:48

Provider

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 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.

Movie

Friends With Money

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2006-05-23 00:00:00

Provider

MyMovies

Review

Director Nicole Holofcener's third film, "Friends With Money," continues her foray into the female psyche. Set in and around Los Angeles and Santa Monica, the film centres on four friends, three of which have financial security and one who is struggling to survive as a cleaner. Catherine Keener, Francis MacDormand, Joan Cusack and Jennifer Aniston head the all star cast and, complimented with a tight script, the actors put together some highly convincing performances. However, for all its merits "Friends With Money" fails to achieve a great deal. Holofcener seems obsessed with trying to ram home the old clichÃ© 'money doesn't equal happiness', and ultimately the issues that her characters embody aren't enough to draw a great deal of audience sympathy. While Holofcener spends the majority of the film highlighting the complexities that come with having an abundance of cash, she is also keen to show the hardships that Olivia (Jennifer Aniston) has to deal with as an 'out-of-relationship' housemaid. Therefore, despite having a fantastic cast and some tight writing, "Friends With Money" unfortunately fails to make an impact. At times it makes pleasurable viewing, with some genuinely amusing and heartfelt moments, but overall the subject will appear too superficial for the majority of audience members.