The Good Girl (2002)
Directed by Miguel Arteta
Written by Mike White
Starring Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal, John C. Reilly, Tim Blake Nelson
Release Date August 7th, 2002
Published August 7th, 2002
I sometimes wonder why I watch Friends. Was it the marketing hype? Was it the fact that seemingly everyone else watches it? Or. is the show actually pretty good. Honestly I'm not sure but I think that I like it because of the potential in the cast. Each member of the Friends cast has the talent to do something great. None has so far achieved that greatness.
Until now.
In The Good Girl, Jennifer Aniston is Justine Last, a bored to death cosmetics clerk at the Retail Rodeo. Justine hates her job and her coworkers, only tolerating their existence to make the job bearable. On top of that Justine is trapped in a loveless marriage to a lazy, shiftless pothead named Phil, expertly played by John C. Reilly. Phil and his pal Bubba (Tim Blake Nelson) paint houses together and spend most of their off hours on Justine's couch smoking weed.
Into all this comes Holden (Jake Gyllenhaal) a new hire at the Retail Rodeo. Holden is quiet and sad, always keeps to himself and Justine admires and envies his solitude. The two strike up a friendship that quickly moves to the bedroom. Of course things are never that easy. While Holden falls madly for Justine, she is unable to overcome her fears and leave her husband. After the excitement of leading the double life of wife and adulterer wears off, Justine begins to see Holden for who he truly is, an emotionally disturbed 22 year old child. The solitude and freedom she loved and coveted were products of cold indifferent parents and not her romantic notion of the tortured artist.
Aniston is superb. Her performance is raw and real. The decisions her character makes are at times shocking and dumb but the mistakes are made poignant by the desire for freedom that caused them and by Aniston's sympathetic eyes that seem constantly on the verge of tears. Aniston's supporting cast is equally strong, especially John C. Reilly who makes the husband's cluelessness endearing and sympathetic. In a great scene near the end, we find out why Phil smokes pot so much, a scene that is funny, touching and cathartic.
Gyllenhaal continues his odd streak of films from Bubble Boy to Donnie Darko and now this. In this film we see almost a repeat of his Darko role but with more sadness and rage. Writer Mike White and director Miguel Arteta teamed previously on the much buzzed about pic Chuck & Buck. After seeing The Good Girl, I desperately want to see Chuck & Buck. If it's as good as The Good Girl, we could have the next hot indie team on our hands.
The Good Girl is an art film with a pop sensibility provided by the casting of Aniston shedding her Friends role and becoming a great actress. This film could actually go down in history as the movie that killed Friends. With Aniston getting such terrific reviews and Oscar buzz it won't be long before she leaves the small screen for good.
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