Friends with Money
By Cory Peynado, Blockbuster.co.uk
Jennifer Aniston heads up a fantastic cast for the wonderful new drama “Friends with Money”. A charming tale that follows the lives of three married couples and their oh-so-single friend. Since “Crash” it’s been quite a while since a really touching ensemble film has been able to make a mark, it’s a difficult thing to pull off, but Director Nicole Holofcener has fortunately done a delightful job.
The film takes us in and out of the lives of our main characters giving us a chance to see how they play off of each other and how strong their relationships are. Olivia (
Jennifer Aniston) is the one that we spend the most time with, leading us to quickly learn that she is the one who seems to be leading the toughest life and her friends are the ones who are constantly trying to help her. But their own lives are far from perfect, beyond the surface we also see some of the marital problems that her friends are having and some of the emotion that can come with it.
Still feeling the affects from her affair with a married man, Olivia is having a hard time coping on her own. Working as a maid she still feels uncomfortable when her wealthy friends try to offer her support. And her own love life or lack there of is only another source of depression for her… this is when one of her friends steps in and decides to set her up on a blind date with Mike (
Scott Caan). Things don’t go as planned and the well recommended Mike turns out to be an adolescent slob who only seems interested in what he can get in the bedroom.
The other friends are Christine (
Catherine Keener), who tries as hard as she can to make everything perfect, Jane (
Frances McDormand), who shouts at people who try to cut in line ahead of her at the supermarket; and Franny (
Joan Cusack), whose biggest concern is that her husband spends too much money on their child's clothes. Jane's husband is Aaron (
Simon McBurney) who seems more gay than anything else, Christine's husband is David (
Jason Isaacs) and they fight over what the characters should say in the screenplay they're writing, and Franny's husband is Matt (
Greg Germann), whose problem, as far as this film is concerned, is that he has no problems.
Cleverly, and without overdoing it, this film just wants to show us the necessary trails and tribulations that people will go through in their lives and the important decisions they have to make to deal with them. After being pulled in for thirty minutes you’ll be totally encapsulated. It’s warm, funny and refreshingly unique. Definitely one to add to the list without thinking.