Movie Notes: Friends With Money

April 12th, 2006

= 4 stars

Starring Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener, Joan Cusack, Frances McDormand
Directed by Nicole Holofcener

Saw Friends With Money over the weekend, a character study centering around four couples, one extremely wealthy, two upper-middle-class, and Jennifer Aniston’s character “poor.” It’s alternately funny and extremely personal, and often very good at observing the little side remarks between people which don’t seem like insults until later when you’re driving home from the party and gossiping: “So… what did you think about so-and-so when she said…?”

The other more critical strength of the film is the observation that wealth doesn’t bring happiness, in so far as each character creates their own problems obsessing over petty things, such as how big of a second story to build, who saw the parking space first, or “Is so-and-so gay?”. All in all it’s a nice treat to see a film that’s grounded in a lazy modern reality, if a bit removed from the average, to at least see how many of our assumptions regarding money are more or less wrong. We can believe having enough wealth and material possessions will take care of all our needs, but likely because of our human condition, this is impossible. And we’ll have to do the hard work of earning our living before realizing this.