FRIENDS WITH MONEY

Jennifer Aniston

I usually don’t like any movie with Jennifer Aniston in it.
She is being forced upon us by a tone deaf movie industry that thinks we will flock to see her in droves because we loved “Friends.” Don’t they know that it usually works in the just the opposite way? She was always right on target in “Friends,” funny and just a bit behind the curve. Her performance in “The Good Girl” was quietly riveting, but since then, her movie performances have been cringe inducing – that is until “Friends with Money.” When she relaxes her face and allows us to see inside-- which is what movie acting is all about -- we can see an abiding and wistful sadness. It is as if she was hurt early in her life and has that etched forever on her face.

She should not “stretch” and pretend to be rich and carefree or vapid or even very successful. She will take her place as a great movie actor when she realizes her greatest gift – the ability to convey that wonderful, rueful knowledge that she never knows quite what she is doing and that things will probably end badly but life does go on in unexpected ways. Her character, Olivia, in “Friends With Money” conveys this knowledge and makes this movie memorable.