stwmby
The worst film I've ever had to sit through? Well, it's up there with the worst.An unpleasant, shallow film about unpleasant shallow people living miserable lives.This film goes nowhere; it has no plot to speak of, other than to depict the desperately sad marriages of a group of spoilt shallow Americans. Aren't films supposed to entertain? This piece of miserable rubbish certainly didn't. The only thing I got from this mess was a better understanding of why Jennifer Anniston no longer gets any decent film roles.A pointless piece of self-indulgent garbage. Avoid.
Python Hyena
Friends With Money (2006): Dir: Nicole Holofcener / Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener, Frances McDormand, Joan Cusack, Jason Isaacs: Comedy that relates to gossip about the supposed lives of others. Screenplay begins with potential but its four subplots are too much or not enough attention given too. The ending is abrupt leaving viewers wondering if that was it? Directed by Nicole Holofcener but neither pulls through as comedy or drama. What he succeeds with is a great cast of leading ladies. Jennifer Aniston plays a former teacher now maid who struggles financially and is dealing with a broken relationship. Catherine Keener plays a frustrated wife who cannot communicate with her stubborn husband. Frances McDormand is easily irritated and unaware that her husband is homosexual. Joan Cusack is rich yet unable to communicate on level with her friends. Each has their dilemmas and each suffers through relationships that are exhausting them. This also causes friction with each other when their issues overwhelm the others. The strength here is that they all find refuge in each other even if they often overstep their boundaries. Unfortunately the male characters are secondary and not very broad. It is a well made film despite being disjointed and sometimes overly predictable. Theme is communication and how we perceive others and then continue to live with them. Score: 6 ½ / 10
nomoons11
I had no idea what to expect when I got a hold of this small film. To see almost every scene is just sad cause you know just about every relationship in here is on the scrap heap.A group of 4 friends, all women, share the ups and downs of each others lives. Joan Cusack , Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener and Frances Mcdormand are all old friends who are still in each others lives. They see each other constantly and behind each others backs they constantly talk about each other. I guess you could call it typical human behavior. All these women except Jennifer Aniston has money and are successful. Problem is, most of these friendships...and marriages... just don't seem to have any steam anymore. You know the situation, you have a friend you've had a in life who you sometimes sit back and wonder, "why are we still friends?" The same goes for marriages and such.With this you get each scene/scenario with the aforementioned women and how there lives are falling apart or just aren't working out. It's pretty obvious that success doesn't bring happiness. Pretty much a mirror in real life.This certainty isn't a bad film but it really isn't noteworthy in any way. If I had to pick out a standout performance it would be Frances Mcdormand. She brings some believability to a highly successful fashion designer who has had enough of her dull life.Don't watch this one if your depressed or in a bad mood cause it won't make you feel any better. If you wanna see a film about relationships that don't work anymore then give this one a try...you might see something in the story line that your life has.
secondtake
Friends with Money (2006)Another interesting Nicole Holofcener film starring Catherine Keener, though not as inventive or funny or convincing as their more recent "Please Give." This is a tale of three and a half couples, and that's a lot of main characters to establish, especially given their relative similarity--all are white, well heeled, urban (and urbane), educated, and articulate. They are all friends, and there are some establishing scenes with all seven characters talking around a table, a little like some of Woody Allen's restaurant scenes.Oh, Woody Allen? Speaking of white, well heeled, etc. etc. Though being Jewish is not a salient part of the mix here, removing a series of stereotypes and jokes that Allen uses so well. The humor and satire and sometimes social criticism is largely cultural, and seemingly mainstream (since we all wish we were rich, at least on some days). But Woody Allen is frankly a better writer than Holofcener, at least so far (again, "Please Give" does resonate better), and I think his sense of physical presence, with the camera weaving around heads, or in other scenes of simple ambiance and old fashioned beauty, is not matched here.And this matters--the writing and camera-work--because there is no single event that turns the story here. In fact, there is very little that happens at all except a glimpse into a little bit of America, like "Sex and the City" (which Holofcener was involved with) but without the single girl on the prowl edge. If this movie is striving for poignancy within the ordinary, it gets halfway there, and half of poignant is something insufficient, yet still interesting.Most of all, the movie has a cast of great actors, all of them. The four women at the center of this (sound familiar?) are stellar: McDormand, Keener, Cusack (Joan), and Aniston (who plays the single girl of the bunch). The husbands are less known, and maybe less effective, though the gay-leaning husband of the McDormand character, played by Simon McBurney. And you can watch the movie just for the acting, and for some of the scenes, which are either powerful or funny in ways that make the other scenes, which are neither, worth waiting through. None of it is bad, so the people who give this a one star rating just didn't click with the slice-of-life aspect at work here.For the best short summary of the plot and the characters and actors, check out the editorial review at Amazon for the DVD (better than wikipedia this time). Notice also the range of reviews by customers, from top to bottom.
