Review of Friends with Money (2006) by Adrienne L — 03 May 2011

This is by far Jennifer Aniston's best performance since 'The Good Girl'. For some reason I always prefer her acting in smaller productions like this over her glitzy 'Friends-like' Hollywood fare. She is wonderful here playing a woman who quit teaching in order to become a maid.

Her character has horrible taste in men, smokes dope, and associates with people far above her station. Basically she's lost, and not Rachel Green. So I loved her in this.

The rest of the female cast may be more seasoned actresses than Aniston, but none of them have ever looked worse or played characters more insecure. One (Joan Cusack) is married to a man who loves her for her money, another's (Frances McDormand) husband is clearly a closeted homosexual, while the other one (Catherine Keener) is married to a total goon who treats her like crap.

Not everything is resolved in this movie. Ironically its Jennifer's character (playing the only single gal) who gets her life together before the credits role. The others have varying degrees of success in finding themselves. I felt like the maried friends stories weren't really resolved.

I'm happy the mentally abused wife leaves her husband, but she still seems miserable so I found her incredibly frustrating. In the end the title of the film suggests that money isn't everything, and neither is marriage. These things I knew already, but the movie (for me) was refreshing.

I have to admit, sometimes I wish I had a husband just so I could use the excuse, "All couples share everything about their friends lives." No they don't. That's a choice, and an excuse to gossip. Couples set boundaries, just like friends do. This film made the married couples look like morons. I found it really funny for that reason. A new personal favourite.