Friends With Money

[The Original BJ]

With this film, Nicole Holofcener has firmly established herself, alongside Charlie Kaufman and Alexander Payne/Jim Taylor, as one of the top comedy screenwriters of the day. Her third feature explores many of the same themes as Walking & Talking and Lovely & Amazing, but her wonderfully perceptive observations about human behavior and relationships make the film feel anything but stale. I find her pictures to be such a welcome breath of fresh air, and she reminds us how rare it is to see American films that deal with the ordinary lives of real people in such a humane way. There's a wonderful sequence near the end of the film when a pair of reactions encompass both the joy and sorrow that come with the difficult decision Catherine Keener's character must make, and this complexity marks Holofcener's great talent at finding both the humor and sadness of life's many moments.

The cast, across the board, is terrific. Frances McDormand and Catherine Keener both easily top their recent Oscar-nominated perfs, particularly McDormand. And Jennifer Aniston, in my opinion an underrated actress whose stardom has always pushed her away from the truly interesting roles, has never been lovelier, even as a maid. Joan Cusack is wonderful as always, although I think her character is slightly underwritten, one of my minor quibbles with the film.

The other quibble I have is the running joke (plot?) about a possibly gay husband that stays around WAY past its welcome.

Friends With Money lacks the emotional heft of Lovely & Amazing, as well as that film's absolutely perfect ending (in contrast, Friends With Money concludes a tad awkwardly even), but it's still the first film of 2006 I can strongly recommend, and in its quiet warmth is something of a minor miracle.