>>REVIEW
FRIENDS WITH MONEY
STARRING Jennifer Aniston, Joan Cusack, Catherine Keener and Frances McDormand
DIRECTED BY Nicole Holofcener
Opens Friday, April 21
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Writers are expected to see the world through a more powerful lens than everyone else. They are skilled at distilling the world into a lucid version of itself and offering it back to us for inspection.
Writer-director Nicole Holofcener has risen to this challenge and takes her observations one step further by parlaying her high-powered interpretations into character-driven films. Her first two features, Walking and Talking and Lovely and Amazing, offered audiences a slice of reality pie and her third effort, Friends with Money, delves even deeper into the wide range of human emotion.
Following four friends at different emotional and financial stages in their lives, it shows us just how weird we all are about money. Those who have it want to cling to the security it provides, yet feel compelled to donate lavish amounts to charity. Those who can’t understand why it doesn’t come to them but feel justified in their aimlessness and inability to achieve career success.
Jennifer Aniston’s role as a teacher-turned-maid illustrates how frustrating being broke can be, yet she is doing little to change her situation. When she asks Joan Cusack to lend her some money, it places a strain on their relationship and leads them to question whether they would be friends if they had met in their present situations.
All the women have this tired, disappointed look to them. Like all the hopes of their 20s and early 30s have been realized and they still don’t feel fulfilled. Their reality serves as a smack in the face as they discover in different ways and at different times, it doesn’t get any easier.
It’s hard not to identify with these flawed women as they realize life doesn’t magically figure itself out at 40. Accident prone and deeply sensitive, Catherine Keener’s marriage disintegrates when she realizes her husband is unable to nurture her.
Frances McDormand is a pitbull in an SUV, loudly cussing out other mothers and swearing like a truck driver. Her friends suspect that her husband is gay because he is sensitive and dresses well.
Her frustration with the injustices of the world manifests itself as screaming at line budgers and parking spot thieves. She thinks people should be cheering her on, instead everyone is embarrassed by her outbursts and unwashed hair.
Thankfully, the men in this film aren’t portrayed as testosterone addled buffoons, but as complex, flawed and baffled individuals.
Each of these women is so genuine and the film moves along so naturally, it feels like you’re part of the conversation.
Throughout the film’s 90 minutes, the ongoing feeling is that happiness isn’t arriving at a career or relationship destination – for some, it’s eternally elusive. For anyone who has reached the pinnacle and wondered if this is really it, Friends with Money will pinch the raw, exposed nerves we’re all battling to protect. |
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