Friends With Money – From Spring 2006

Friends With Money – Spring 2006

Review originally published in NCC’s The Vignette 

(This review has been updated with better grammar from the originally published version. Significant changes are noted with strikethroughs and/or asterisks. Updated and additional notes are further below.)

"Friends With Money is a difficult movie to absorb. There are so many layers. It is not a feel-good movie. It is not a typical comedy. It does have heart and the largest dose of truth I have seen in a long time. Even though the target demographic seems to be ages 30-45, I can appreciate its messages. (Me being so young, hyperbolic, and confident but kinda wrong here. LOL.)

Three friends are rich (Catherine Keener, Joan Cusack, and Frances McDormand) and married. One friend (Jennifer Aniston) is single and a maid *house cleaner (there is a difference). Including the husbands and supporting characters, any one of these people *characters could exist in reality. The world of the rich is opened up into a new perspective. The general assumption is that those who have money should be happy. Those with money should have less problems. This movie shows that those who have money are still human. Their problems are only different and *that emotions are *still universal. It reminds us that money is only material.

All four friends are in different *financial situations but rely on *upon each other for advice and support. Christine (Keener) and husband David are screen writers who have decided to build a second story to their ranch home in a ranch neighborhood. And they wonder why the neighbors are upset? But once Christine realized why, she tries to fix the problem which only creates more fighting between her and David. Jane (McDormand) is a successful fashion designer married to a man that *who is suspected of being gay by her friends. It is Jane who reveals and actively points out the worst characteristics of rich society while fighting a mild *going through depression. Franny (Cusack) and her husband have the best marriage and are the richest couple of the group. Due to their higher income, they spend their money frivolously on unimportant things but give a second thought to when it really matters *(helping Olivia).

This was Jennifer Aniston’s best role yet. She plays Olivia, a former teacher who has lost direction in life. To make money she cleans rich peoples’ homes. She goes against her better judgement in how much *less she charges a client, gives a part of her pay to her low class ‘boyfriend’ *fuckboy, cons the cosmetic counter salespeople of free samples, and disturbs the homes she works in as a cathartic way to release her anger. Aniston plays Olivia with such realism. Her facial expressions, movement, and tone are clearly expressed and flawless. It is easy to sympathize with Olivia since that being on the other side of the fence, her friends have the unconscious and unintentional ability to make her feel worse because they are rich. All four friends are an eclectic group, but they somehow fit together.

Less than an hour and a half, it packs more than what is usually spread into two hours. With excellent dialogue, a focus on social psychology, a perfect cast, direction, (etc.) Friends With Money will definitely earn a nomination at awards time."

UPDATES from 2021:

I was only 20 years old first watching this and writing this review. Now at 35, I have a much different relationship to money than as a working college student. I’ve never been rich, so I can’t understand what it’s like to have more money than to know what to do with, but I’ve always been (thankfully) able to buy enough groceries for the week and essentials when needed.

There’s an even wider gap now between the rich, not-rich, and poor. Yes, everyone is still human and has their own stories with complex emotions, but we’re now more in-tune with seeing disparity of wealth. So, while that opened door perspective was interesting for its time, that door has mostly shut.

Despite the glaring economic shift, what still stands strong are remembering the excellent cast performances, how rich the dialogue was to listen to which gives the characters the complexity I remarked upon above, and their interesting dynamic as long-time friends. There was a clear line through the story showing how each woman and couple related to their own income, to how money affected their personalities, and their friendship dynamic. How they were dressed, styled, gestured, and even just looked at each other on screen spoke volumes for their characters. 

At one point, the four of them even said out loud if they weren’t already friends, would they currently be friends? This was especially in how they related to Olivia – and how Olivia related to them. Franny, Christine, and Jane were obviously wealthier than Olivia, but among them, Franny was well above Christine and Jane. Would Franny and Olivia, as the two outliers of the spectrum, slip out of the foursome and find those closer to their own statuses? Or would they all continue their friendship into this decade able to better understand each other's different lives? And as much as Jane fell into her depression and dismay with wealth, when seen in retrospect how her rage is triggered by those cutting in front of her on shopping lines, in parking lots, and in traffic, that despite it being key to more serious underlying issues, would she stop to think about how lucky she is to be in a position for those things to be considered a trigger of injustice?

Although all four characters had dimension, and writer/director Nicole Holofcener had especially thought of Catherine Keener as her muse for Christine, it really was Olivia’s story that was supposed to exemplify contrast and realism. In the ten years Jennifer Aniston played the sitcom character Rachel Green, she had also starred in a number of films that received plenty of positive reviews, but it was in The Good Girl she was truly praised for such a dramatic complex role. Friends With Money was released only two years after Friends ended, and at the same time her very public marriage from Brad Pitt had ended in a very public divorce that left her feeling deceived, angry, and sad. Rightfully so. Playing Olivia gave her perfectly timed license into channeling those kinds of emotions. To watch Olivia grocery shop, clean her clients’ homes, con Lancôme facial cream from the department store beauty counters, etc. was like watching someone unashamed and unabashedly just going through the motions. And probably the best part was at the end NOT seeing her all of a sudden snap-out-of-it with a montage of changing her life to achieve the kind of wealth her friends had, or deciding to return to teaching but in a less wealthy district. If anything, she might even become more proud of having her own business and expand?!

I admittedly did not recently re-watch the movie on Amazon Prime, so some thoughts in the original review and some thoughts even now may not properly reflect the film. But I am writing myself a reminder to compare this movie to Nicole Holofcener’s other directorial and written works: Lovely & Amazing, Please Give, her 4 episodes of Sex and the City, and her 4 episodes of Parks and Rec. This will be an interesting look to see how over 20 years she’s not only been able to show the different characters within their given economic status of their time, but also how she approaches and emphasizes female friendships and their ambitions.

Some additional trivia to note in the time since it's premiere, and this review:

Although this wasn’t nominated for an Oscar, it was recognized at the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards; was nominated for Best Screenplay, and Frances McDormand won for Best Supporting Female.

Frances McDormand has continued along her legendary career playing women without vanity; especially winning Best Actress Oscars for 2017's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and for 2020's Nomadland.

After playing Olivia, Jennifer Aniston was also in that year's The Break-Up. Starting in 2008, Jennifer has been on a movie-starring streak; taking on a variety of genres. Her most recent role in Apple TV's The Morning Show has proven to be one of the most fascinating of her career.

Nicole Holofcener's upcoming screenplay credit for The Last Duel (shared with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and the novel's Eric Jager) still incorporates a strongly written female character lead but takes place in the 14th Century of Norman France. According to an IndieWire article, Ben and Matt wrote the two males protagonists' perspectives while Nicole wrote the female's; as per the similar structure of Rashomon.