Nicole Holofcener's first two films, 1996's WALKING & TALKING and 2001's LOVELY & AMAZING, were intelligent looks at modern-day relationships between friends and family. Continuing her one-movie-every-five-years schedule, 2006's FRIENDS WITH MONEY follows that tradition of smart screenwriting, excellent acting, and careful direction. FRIENDS WITH MONEY focuses on four female friends examining their relationships with their significant others and themselves--and not always liking what they see. Frances McDormand stars as Jane, a successful dress designer who has taken to wild public outbursts, stops washing her hair, and is married to a kind man who might be gay (Simon McBurney). Joan Cusack is Franny, a multimillionaire who appears to have the perfect life with her husband (Greg Germann) and kids. Catherine Keener plays Christine, who is building her dream house and writing a screenplay with her husband (Jason Isaacs) as their life together is crumbling. And the youngest of the foursome, Olivia (Jennifer Aniston), is a pot-smoking ne'er-do-well who works as a maid, stalks her ex-lover, and has a thing about not paying for certain high-end cosmetics. As they prepare to attend a major fundraiser for ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), they all take stock of their lives, reaching some very difficult conclusions. Holofcener has again created the kind of fascinating, complex characters, insightful and believable dialogue, and wholly realistic situations, crafting an adult look at life and love in the 21st century.
2.
The three friends with money, Frannie (Joan Cusack), Jane (Frances McDormand), and Christine (Catherine Keener), share a concern for Olivia (Jennifer Aniston) who seems unable to make a living or sustain a relationship - at least by their standards. Their group examination of her lack of options magnifies each of their own doubts and concerns about the marriages and careers to which they have committed themselves.
Olivia, meanwhile, drifts through each of her friends’ lives, at times avoiding the issue of money altogether, and at other times accepting her friends’ painful generosity. Ultimately, Olivia will find satisfaction and stability from an unexpected place, but her own somewhat happy ending is muted by the harsh reality of the suddenly disassembled lives of her best friends.
3.
Friends With Money is the telling new comedy from the acclaimed writer/director Nicole Holofcener.
Jennifer Aniston, Frances McDormand, Joan Cusack and Catherine Keener star as a quartet of west coast, life-long friends who have achieved a level of comfort in their lives and have now settled into a life of designer clothes, charity events, and caring for the men (and offspring) in their lives. But as they approach 'a certain age,' unsettling things are starting to throw their comfortable lives off balance.
There's Olivia (Jennifer Aniston) who, reaching a personal crisis, has quit her teaching job and is now cleaning houses for a living. She is looking for support - fiscal and emotional - from her more well-heeled acquaintances and continues her search for a significant other among the slim pickings on offer.
Jane and Aaron (Frances McDormand and Simon McBurney) are successful designers whose marriage has reached a pivotal point in which the pair have become oblivious to each other's concerns, and perhaps even to their own natures.
Christine and her husband Patrick (Catherine Keener and Jason Isaacs) are a professionally partnered, screenwriting couple whose latest projects - co-writing a script and expanding their house - raise tensions at home to a new level.
Franny and Matt (Joan Cusack and Bob Stephenson) are the independently wealthy ones, raising their two children amidst an abundant lifestyle that calls their united front of a partnership into question.
As the couples move from one get together to another, a group portrait begins to emerge of people in like and love with one another, in various configurations. Friends with Money is a modern comedy drama about contemporary adults in search of love, friendship, and filthy lucre but finding everything in a state of constant flux. -- &scopy; Sony Pictures Classics
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