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FRIENDS WITH MONEY Send This Review to a Friend
In one way or another, the characters in “Friends With Money” are at a boiling point, whether they realize it or not. Writer-director Nicole Holofcener’s perceptive film set in the Los Angeles milieu is about friends who are unfulfilled and living in a void that money cannot fill. An excellent cast is the film’s chief attribute, but the story itself is engrossing in a quiet way. This isn’t a flamboyant movie, but it inches along effectively so that by the conclusion we have intriguing portraits of the characters, their shortcomings and their problems.
Jennifer Aniston is the single one of the group as Olivia, and it is surprising that she has been able to remain friends with the others, as her world is so different and so are her values. She has been unhappy as a teacher, and has taken to working as a maid, an unchallenging job that keeps her busy and earns her money with which to get by. Her relationships with men are a disaster. One deadbeat she takes up with helps her clean, sleeps with her between the dusting and then demands a cut of her pay.
Frances McDormand, in another of her fine performances, is seething with frustration in her marriage to Aaron, played by Simon McBurney, who is fighting against his homosexual tendencies, put to the test when he meets a man to whom he is attracted.
Catherine Keener acutely plays Christine, a screenwriter who collaborates with her husband, who is building a huge house that is an eyesore to their neighbor. Christine is oblivious to that at first and it is strange that she has no clue. She and her husband are growing apart, annoying one another and getting into bitchy arguments. There’s no good prognosis for them.
Joan Cusack portrays Franny, who is seemingly contentedly married, but apart from making hefty charitable contributions, her every-day life is vacuous and indulgent. She is in a position to help Olivia, but she disapproves of Olivia’s attitude.
The performances are so good that one’s interest is held whether or not the film itself always appears credible. The director works with a scalpel as well as with a camera to cut away the layers of these assorted and strained lives, and the actors do the rest. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
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