★★★ Friends With Money
[Gino: 4.0, TwoShoes: 3.5, Twinkletoes: 1.5]
Gino says: "What a great cast: [the great?] Frances McDormand, [the great?] Joan Cusack, Catherine Keener. And, as the critics have said, Jennifer Aniston, while kinda unproven as an actress, does what she does well here. Noone has a role here that will garner any attention, but the non-extreme characters* made the roles more realistic, I think. This is another very good film by not-terribly-prolific writer/director Nicole Holofcener: no huge plot-driving spectacle, but pleasant to sit and watch relationships among imperfect friends. *Although one negative: One of the husband characters was so evil that it was distracting. As a little side note the film prominently displays one of our favorite resteraunts in the LA area, which I will profile in a future Freeform post."
Twinkletoes says: "As a very big fan of Lovely and Amazing I was greatly disappointed in this film. I think the big difference between my reactions to these 2 films were attitudes towards the characters. In Lovely and Amazing we had some imperfect women who I could root for. I actually cared about what was going to happen to them. Here we have 4 imperfect woman who are to one degree or another, all unlikable. Frances McDormand was mean, nasty and dirty, and I had no idea why she was unhappy. She seemed to be in a loving relationship. Her friends thought her husband was gay but at no point did he ever exhibit any proof of their suspicions and didn't he always treat his wife very well? So what's her beef? Why not wash your friggin' hair? Jennifer Aniston was at various times annoyingly aimless, passive, or psycho. Catherine Keener had a mean husband but he was often right on point with his critcisms. Joan Cusack donates $2 million to charity but won't LEND her friend $1800 to help her land a better job? I get the point. Here we have some imperfect people who can look beyond each other's imperfections and still maintain their friendships. But you have to show me some good in these people to make me care and to make me believe that these people could ever be friends. It was like watching a watered down and boring version of Hannah and Her Sisters without any humor."
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5 comments:
Dude: the Frances McDormand character had a mild mental illness! So whether her life was objectively great or not had nothing to do with it, and in fact played better if it did seem pretty sweet. --Gino
I just watched this thing and at no point did we see a scene where her mental illness was discussed. Can you recall it for me? Either way, Ill or not her character was not likable.
For a character driven film like this to work I need to connect somehow with the characters. They need to either elicit my symapthies or make me despise them. These people were just annoying.
I will say this. I liked it more than Miranda July's film whose title I won't utter again. Of course it helps a film I don't like when its only about 87 minutes long.
I'm not saying it was discussed, but I think it was clear. And I have known of people by a degree of separation who wouldn't wash their hair.
Anyway, I won't agrue with you. I understand your point, and in reprospect I was surprised I gave it a 4.0. But I don't think it's as bad as you are getting at.
Adios,
G
Well maybe I was wrong. Apparently my better half thought she might be ill. Still she disliked this film even more than I did. I contend that it was far from clear and that even if it was, I don't think it would have made much of a difference.
Please don't make me watch this. That didn't work out so well last time the two of you diverged so wildly. I can't even remember the name of that movie. I do remember something like this, though:
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Lord.
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