Friends With Money (DVD, 2006, Widescreen/Full Frame Edition)

For those who want movies with straightforward plots and resolved endings, this isn't THAT movie. I happened to like it very much because it showed so much of the complexities of real life, not the simplistic, formulaic stuff that passes for "entertainment" today. This isn't a fairy tale.
Instead, it is the story of four very different women, in varying income brackets. One of them, a former teacher (played by Jennifer Aniston) is now working as a maid and it is clear that she is judged by her friends. Her lack of money is a repeated theme here, with one friend urging her to take donations of money, another giving her a designer dress to wear to an event and so forth. There is even tension when she asks for a "temporary" loan from another friend so she can change careers.
The cast is superb, from Joan Cusack to Frances McDornand. This ensemble of women are refreshingly unglamourous (for the most part) although there is one scene where Aniston wears a vintage maid's outfit to spice up a sexual episode.
I had certain expectations about where this film would go but time and again the director surprised me -and I liked that. The sexually ambivalent husband, the jerk of a boyfriend,the marriage in trouble....each of these situations and relationships veered off in odd ways.
I like quirky movies. But I think perhaps people have expectations and perceptions of Aniston and she certainly wasn't playing a perky, charming woman here. Instead, she was multi-layered, with a dark side, and she was cleary unsure of her life's path and direction.
The ending? I can't say it ties up all the loose ends but it seemed very believable to me. This film is for a certain type of film enthusiast but I think there need to be more films like this, showing women in all their complexity, their age lines showing, going beyond the typical film stereotypes.

This is the cream of the crop in "chick flicks". The interlocking stories of four women (three with money and one without) and in the close orbit of their loving relationships (no, they weren't lesbian's) are the men in their world, who do play supporting roles in the women's lives. Joan Cusack, Catherine Keener,Frances McDormand and Jennifer Aniston star in this movie about friendship, love and the pitfalls that come with those feelings. Would guys get into this movie (besides seeing Aniston is a little French maids outfit)? If they're in touch with the true world, where they must share both air and space with real women, and do it without all the superficial macho bullshit that fails to show real men, they might enjoy it. Women? They will love it hands down.

So this is a movie of a group who is well of, the type who will spend 10thousand for a dinner table at a fundraiser like its no problem..... they are all well off except one, Olivia, she is single and a housecleaner which you can see her friends seem to look down on, but still care about her and want more for her. they desperatly try to find a man for her starting with one of the friends setting her up with her personal trainer who turns out to be a complete jerk but olivia seems to go along with it anyways.... he basicly decides to have sex with her in each of her clients house, he curls his nose at the thought of touching a sponge and does nothing but possibly create more work for her and then ask her for a cut of the pay (after he brags about how he makes so much more than her) ..... karma pays off when one of her clients who was also kind of a jerk in negotiating her price down below what she charges, she decides to go out with him and learns a pelasant surprise about him .....
the other neat plot is the friend who everyone keeps insisting her husband is gay, no one will say it to her face, and they all talk about it ..... we are taken on a bit of an interesting journey with him as other men socialize with him....
the movie was good to watch, might be worth renting but probably not worth buying so, i suggest rent it first....

In this movie Friends with Money, Olivia (played by Jennifer Aniston) is startling funny as she goes to the shopping center at the perfume counter and obtain samples (as she can't afford it). Her other three friends all have jobs some are very well to do and they all complain about something. Franny is the rich one played by Joan Cusak. Very funny. A great movie for your collection.

I was looking forward to a light Jennifer Aniston comedy but what I found was a depressing film about people who all hate their lives and did nothing but dig themselves into their mires more deeply. At the end of the film, no one had changed or was better off than when the film began. A movie about very self-involved people trying to help each other become a little less self-involved and a little more functional in life, but their efforts fell flat and no one went anywhere. A puppy-chasing-its-tail kind of movie.