The last thing 40-year-old men and women need is a drama-comedy flick to tell them how bad life can be at that age. Sure, not everyone goes through a boring lifeless marriage, but that story has been told before and putting "Friends" star Jennifer Aniston in it isn't going to make it any more watchable.
Like a dying old lady, "Friends with Money" mocks people who submit to a life without trying to improve their unpleasant existence. It's a bit depressing to watch four friends, three of whom are in poorly matched marriages.
Director Nicole Holofcener ("Lovely & Amazing") gives too much attention to the single Olivia (Aniston). Holofcener drags audiences kicking and screaming by the heels as Olivia cleans houses for a living after quitting her job as a teacher.
Viewers will either feel compelled to pity the aging single woman or whisper "loser" behind her back. With no backbone to support or back herself up, Olivia goes around getting trampled by everyone. She allows people to take advantage of, use, and toy around with her. Once again, it's depressing.
"Friends with Money" takes a serious look at life, as do other all-star female flicks like "The Hours" and "Mona Lisa Smile." "The Hours," with Hollywood superwomen Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Julianne Moore, though depressing in nature, brought a sense of closure as they established a new order in the constrictive male dominated worlds. "Mona Lisa Smile" did this as well, but not with the same effectiveness.
What's missing in the estrogen-injected "Friends with Money" is any form of retribution or character growth. While this may more accurately reflect real life, it makes for a movie that is unmoving and doesn't have any sort of payoff.
Holofcener also shows how boring a rich life can be. Franny (Joan Cusack of "In & Out") is probably the only happy wife of the four friends, partly because of the great sex still present in her marriage.
Perhaps the funniest scenes are with Jane (Frances McDormand of "Fargo") a quirky, menopausal character who has a gay husband. Jane is the cranky oddball of the group who reacts to every little thing.
Jane runs into a window after getting into a fight in an Old Navy store, she gives the finger to cars that cut her off, and bitches about her son's friend who ate two full meals and gives no appreciation to the mother.
Meanwhile, her sex life lags greatly because her husband is quite apparently gay.
The last member of the quartet of friends is Christine (Catherine Keener of "The 40 Year Old Virgin"). Her marriage similarly resembles one that jumped the gun without knowing what they were getting themselves into.
The movie thoughtlessly tosses the audience to and fro between the childhood girlfriends, only to end up with what appears to be a rather pitiful message that girls can't really make it without a male counterpart.
Even after leaving an unfit marriage, Christine misses her ex-husband within a matter of days. Franny has, from the very beginning, submitted to her husband's actions. Throughout the film, Jane had a complex of feeling ugly and unworthy and only feels better after coaxing her gay husband to say that she is beautiful.
In the end, "Friends with Money" is as dry as the marriages that it portrays. Holofcener does not give us anything worth caring about.
"Friends with Money" is playing at the Amherst Dipson.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
