LA’s affluent Westside is the setting for writer-director Nicole Holfcener’s excellent third feature, “Friends with Money,” which was given the honor – and with good reason – of opening this year’s Sundance Film Festival. As she did in her previous efforts, 1996’s “Walking and Talking” and the 2001 release “Lovely and Amazing,” Holofcener again offers astute, often brutally honest observations about the fragile, complex relationships between women. This time out she dresses up the old axiom “money changes everything” and takes it for a spin in the Beemer down the sun-bleached streets of Santa Monica. Her dialogue is nimble, and what passes for narrative rather static. Not a bad thing, mind you, for Holofcener is far less interested with what her characters are doing than she is in how they’re BEING.
The female leads in this ensemble dramedy are beyond lovely and amazing, beginning with Jennifer Aniston (back in “The Good Girl” form) as Olivia, a stoner whose financial and romantic woes are the catalyst for the story.
Unlike her three BFFs, the self-esteem deficient Olivia is unmarried, unmotivated and poor. Having abandoned her teaching career, Olivia is cleaning houses, much to the chagrin of the richest gal of the bunch, Franny (Joan Cusack), who refuses to loan Olivia money unless she agrees to enter counseling.
Catherine Keener is predictably fabulous playing a screenwriter whose marriage is failing, and Frances McDormand rocks it as Jane, a fiery fashion designer in the midst of a disturbing personal transformation. Men are mostly relegated to the background, but Simon McBurney stands out as Jane’s ambiguously gay hubby.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 7, 2006. Read the original PDF.