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THE GOOD GIRL Send This Review to a Friend
Jennifer Aniston's fine performance is not the only reason for recommending "The Good Girl." The film as a whole, directed by Miguel Arteta from Mike White's screenplay, is a beautifully realized blend of drama, satire and a dark view of humdrum, frustrating lives without an attempt to soften the incisiveness with an easy, feel-good resolution. There is understatement throughout, even when the stakes are heightened, and if there is a chance to inject wry humor, the filmmakers don't miss the opportunity.
Aniston portrays Justine Last, a very bored young wife who works at Retail Rodeo, a Texas emporium that rarely seems to have many customers but does have a loud speaker system to announce bargains and does offer makeovers for the occasional victim of its beauty counter. Justine is married to Phil (John C. Reilly), a decent but dull guy who paints houses for a living and likes to sit around in his free time smoking pot with his co-worker buddy Bubba (Tim Blake Nelson). Justine has had it and thinks there must be something better in life, but just doesn't know what. It is Justine who narrates the film in a matter-of-fact tone that sets the style and rhythm of the tale.
Life begins to take a dangerous turn for her when she and Holden (Jake Gyllenhaal), who also works at the store, become strangely attracted. She doesn't realize that Holden is a basket case even though he talks passionately about wanting to be a writer and professes his undying love for her. He feels put upon by the world, and Holden is the name he has given himself after Holden in J. D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye," his emotional bible. She finally gives in and is having hot sex with him at a local motel even though she knows she hasn't thought out the relationship and is still emotionally and conventionally bound to her husband no matter how fed up she is.
"The Good Girl" recounts--always with Justine's narration as the anchor--how life for her spins out of control in unexpected ways, unexpected for us as well. Although the film is gently making fun of the dreary, dead-end lives many people lead, it gives voice to the desperation on the part of both Justine and Holden to find something better out there and doesn't look down upon its characters. When we are invited to laugh, it is mainly at the situations, not the people. The supporting roles are handled by a good cast, including Deborah Rush, Zooey Deschanel, John Carroll Lynch, and screenwriter Mike White, the latter playing a security guard who revels in religion. "The Good Girl" emerges as one of the best American films of 2002. A Fox Searchlight Pictures release
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