Friends with Money

Friends with Money stars Jennifer Aniston, Joan Cusak, Catherine Keener, and Frances McDormand. I knew the premise was the tension between Jennifer’s Olivia who works as a maid and struggles to get a foothold in adult live and her rich, married friends. I guess I expected it to be funnier, but found the drama fine. While I did get caught up in the relationships and I did care about the characters, I thought the movie as a whole was another look at over-privileged Angelenos. It wasn’t surprising in any way. There’s a couple that argues incessantly and are headed for divorce, a couple that’s pretty happy and one that’s probably going to make it through despite the fact that the husband may be gay. Yep, in this era that’s really not unpredictable to viewers.
Seeing how small and existential the personal problems seemed (I kept thinking of ways each could fix their lives rather easily) against say what one finds in Indonesia, where I’m watching this on HBO (in 8 weeks this is the first time I’ve watched HBO so TV just isn’t that essential to me) distanced me from the film somewhat.

I did feel the friendships were contrived. Aniston seems 10 years younger than the three other actresses and they never addressed that. Also none of these people have parents or siblings who would also influence them. Somehow they have these dissected lives, as many movies now do to serve the premise. I get how that works for the structure, but it’s also why I prefer TV where 22 episodes allows for more characters, family and friends if the writer chooses.

The ending was weak - a rip-off of the Princess and the Frog with little irony or something that would make it work rather than insult. That Olivia learned something or changed was a small gain. That the overweight, unkempt, unemployed loser turned out to be a millionaire was just groan inducing.

Well, nothing else was on and I couldn’t study for the LSAT or I’d finish that book. The movie did look nice and had good background music. Any complaints I have are minor and can be justified because the filmmakers wanted to follow the Hollywood Standard.