I hadn't heard of writer-director Nicole Holofcener's first two movies, 1996 Walking ad Talking and 2001's Lovely & Amazing before seeing her latest, Friends with Money. But after seeing it the others have immediately gone to the top of my 'Must See' list. For here is that rare curiosity: a picture that focuses on women that doesn't involve one of them drowning her children, sleeping with one of her junior high students, or being stalked by a deranged killer met during a moment of weakness on the internet. Nor does Friends with Money neatly tie up loose ends, fill in back story to 'explain' each and every plot point, or offer any group of ladies quilting, making fried green tomatoes, or bonding over a pair of bell-bottomed jeans.
We are far from Lifetime Television for Women Fem-Jep movies or their equally stereotypical feature chick flicks ( though to be sure, I'm a hardcore devotee of the latter ) . Friends with Money blithely cuts a new path for itself—an intelligent relationship picture centered on middle-aged women that's so close to normal life as to feel almost radical ( wrinkles, minimal makeup and all ) . It's a movie that dramatizes the norm and finds the organic gentle comedy in everyday life to boot. Aside from its superb script and direction, it's perfectly cast and acted, and as a bonus, features new songs by the immensely gifted Rickie Lee Jones. I haven't quite liked a relationship picture this much since the criminally overlooked Living Out Loud—though for very different reasons. But I fear that all this praise will mislead audiences. This is a great little movie but it's also one in which very little happens, which may throw off attention-deficient audiences. Perhaps even more disconcerting may be both its lack of sentimentality AND cynicism. It offers small but lasting rewards—quite an accomplishment.
The ads have featured Jennifer Aniston who I have detested in romantic comedies. Here, in what seems a follow-up to her Good Girl role, she plays Olivia, the most typical of the characters—a single former private school teacher who feels emotionally detached after another love affair ( with a married man to boot ) gone bad. Her single woman ennui will feel very familiar to audiences but her story is the picture's most mundane ( though I think it's her best onscreen work—high praise from me ) . Olivia is the wild card and youngest in a pack of friends who have apparently been so for a long time. Olivia's chums, via their marriages, kids, and most importantly, through their incomes, have attained a certain balance in their lives that Olivia is sorely missing.
We meet them at the outset of the picture dining at a restaurant and quickly size them up, thanks to Holofcener's shorthand writing and editing approach. Screenwriter Christine ( Catherine Keener ) and her writing partner husband David ( Jason Isaacs ) are modern-day versions of the Bickersons, baiting each other at every opportunity and not noticing how uncomfortable it makes the others. At the top of the relationship and money chain are Franny ( Joan Cusack ) and the boyish Matt ( Greg Germann ) , whose only problem seems to be where to donate $2 million of their money. Feisty Jane ( Frances McDormand ) , a successful clothing designer suggests, that Franny and Matt give the money to Olivia who is now working as a maid, but this suggestion is immediately dismissed by everyone at the table as nonsense, including Jane's effeminate husband Aaron, the British-accented Aaron ( Simon McBurney ) , and Franny and Matt announce that the money's going to their child's private school.
Money and the lack of it is the flow-through line of the movie, but the emotional transitions the characters are in is what galvanizes the story. Olivia's tale is really the Maguffin here—all the other characters care about her and are concerned with her outcome—but WE don't particularly ( and Holofcener's resolve for her at the end of the picture with its little twist seems a tad forced ) . Olivia's friends with their seemingly mundane lives are actually more interesting with Jane, the explosive one, the most interesting of all. Is she really so angry because she's 43 and life is 'like we're waiting to die' or is it because somewhere deep inside she knows that her loving husband Aaron is what everyone whispers behind her back? Gay.
Not even Aaron—who is pixilated by his new male 'friend,' the married sock designer who loves going to old movies in the afternoon, too—seems to have a clue about what might be up ahead. Holofcener doesn't make easy assessments or finalize everything as the picture concludes. Again, I saw this as a breath of fresh air. Movies often claim to mirror real life but rarely ever do. Friends with Money does and what the mirror reveals doesn't look half bad.
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Antonio Banderas, with his innate combination of grace, dignity and intensity not to mention his breathless good looks, seems an obvious choice to take on the role of Pierre Dulaine, the ballroom dance champion who volunteered his time and talents to a group of miscreant teens in a tough New York high school. Take the Lead, which is inspired by Dulaine's life, follows Banderas through the usual paces of these sophisticated mentor/aggressive student pictures: in this corner we have the teacher, the high school Henry Higgins who represents the importance of arts, education and mostly good manners, and over here we have the teenage Eliza Doolittles, those bratty, mouthy ( now trash talkin' ) , mixed-up-but-desperately-miserable teens looking for Guidance. Previous examples of this type have included The Blackboard Jungle, To Sir With Love, Up the Down Staircase, and sections of Fame. The Dead Poets Society, Dangerous Minds, and Mona Lisa Smile are variations on this theme. Take the Lead fills out the formula with hot dance numbers. Instead of 'Hot Lunch Jam' however, we get hip hop, rap and those sizzling ballroom numbers familiar to every fan of 'Dancing with the Stars.'
That Banderas, who skillfully offers the suggestion of a professional dancer, will deliver the goods is in evidence from the moment we glimpse him astride his sensible ( but uncool ) bicycle, tuxedo tails flying behind him as he confidently whizzes through Manhattan traffic. It is the most memorable thing about this formulaic but extremely enjoyable audience pleaser.
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Local Screening of Note: Chicago Filmmakers' Dyke Delicious series regular contributor Sharon Zurek, who edited together the hilarious clips that made up Bad Girl Behind Bars, has now taken on the challenge of lesbian supermodel and super druggie Gia ( so memorably portrayed in the HBO biopic by Angelina 'Lips' Jolie ) . Zurek's homage, titled Gia! Gia! Gia! is a combination of rarely seen documentary and home movie footage of the dyke icon. Gia's death at 26 from AIDS and her heroin addiction, major plot points in the Jolie picture, are downplayed in favor of an examination of the first supermodel's 'breathtaking beauty and her love of women.' As always, a 7 p.m. social hour precedes the 8 p.m. screening and after-show mingling. It happens this Saturday, April 8. Tickets $10. www.blackcatfilm.net/dykedelicious.html or 773-293-1447.
Check out my archived reviews at www.windycitytimes.com or www.knightatthemovies.com
