It was Harry's first morning at nursery this monday, and for the first time since he was born (well, almost!) I found myself in town on my own for 2 hours. And I was lost. I felt very lonely and missing Harry terribly, so I decided I would pop along to the library for a browse and a read to help the time go quicker. As I was leaving, I noticed this film on the DVD shelves, and thought it looked okay and was worth a watch. How wrong was I?!
Friends with Money (pretentious title or what?) tells us the tale of 4 women, all friends but all very different and at different points in their lives at the moment. Franny has inherited her money but her husband seems to think it's as much his as it is hers, Christine is a script writer for television shows but her marriage is in real trouble, Jane is a fashion designer with a questionable husband and who is falling apart in front of her friends, and finally Olivia, the pot-smoking poor one of the group who's working as a maid. Her 3 friends are determined to find her love but Olivia isn't having much luck.
Will the women remain friends through the ups and downs?
I thought from the plot this might be a funny take on friendship and how the women cope with the vast sums of money they have and a bit of a funny story to do with Olivia as well but this just didn't happen. In facts, I don't actually recall even cracking a smile throughout this dire movie, it was so depressing and downbeat that it was making me feel pretty depressed as well. There were clearly moments that were supposed to be funny involving Olivia and her then-boyfriend but they just made me cringe and wince when I was watching it. I really can't tell you how terrible this film was!
The cast did promise something on its own, with Jennifer Aniston playing the downbeat Olivia. The problem with Aniston for me is that she will never be able to breakaway from the "Rachel" persona that she is best known for and therefore I struggle to see her in a serious role like this one. She seemed to only act with half the effort she put into other movie roles, and this really came across in her performance and it wasn't that enjoyable to watch. The other actresses were somewhat better however. Joan Cusack puts in a good if boring performance as inheritee Franny but I wanted to give her a slap everytime she wanted permission from her husband to spend her own money!
Frances McDromand played Jane, the one with the awful marriage and she was annoying in her own little way as well. She was so indecisive it was irritating the heck out of me, but she was good on screen and enjoyable to watch in her performance. And finally nutty Christine was played by Catherine Keener, and this was probably the best performance of the lot to be honest. She pulled off her depressing role with a real honesty and passion, and I actually felt sorry for her, unlike I did any of the others! The husbands of the characters did pop upt hroughout but no performances were really worth mentioning as they were so few and far between.
All the way through the film, I kept convincing myself that something funny was going to happen or that they would all end up with some sort of happy ending but no matter how hard I wished for it, I was left feeling miserable and annoyed with having watched this as it ended. A lot of the scenes were incredibly depressing, and a few actually were quite uncomfortable to watch, especially those involving Olivia and Mike...what a pig! I didn't like watching those and thought that she needed to grow a backbone and it was things like this that just made me want to switch it off, but for some stupid reason I didn't.
If for some bizarre reason you still have a hankering to watch this film after my review of it, please try to hire it for free on some free trial for DVD rentals, just please don't waste money on this. Jennifer Aniston has it in her to released much better quality films than this, and this is certainly one none of these actresses should be boasting about. I can honestly say I didn't enjoy one minute of it, thought all of the characters were pretty dire and that this is possibly the most depressing film I have ever seen. Simply dreadful...avoid like the plague!
Written and directed by Nicole Holofcener, with a certificate of 15 in the UK. Running time 88 minutes (of hell) and available on Amazon for £4.98.
Main Cast: Catherine Keener ... Christine Jason Isaacs ... David Timm Sharp ... Richard Joan Cusack ... Franny Greg Germann ... Matt Simon McBurney ... Aaron Frances McDormand ... Jane Jake Cherry ... Wyatt Jennifer Aniston ... Olivia Scott Caan ... Mike
Thank you for reading.
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Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
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![Friends With Money [DVD] [2006]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/81198072.jpg "Friends With Money [DVD] [2006]")
Sep 26th, 2008
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