The Good Girl
2002 Directed by Miguel Arteta
Synopsis
The plot revolves around a young married woman whose mundane life takes a turn for the worse when she strikes up a passionate and illicit affair with an oddball discount-store stock boy who thinks he's Holden Caulfield.
Cast
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Tired of her reputation as the pretty one from U.S. sitcom 'Friends', Jennifer Aniston attempts to expand her range by playing depressed and ordinary Justine Land in this ‘indie’ comedy drama.
Working as a discount store cashier in small-town Texas, Justine idles away her time wondering where her hopes and dreams went. Inspiration is lacking at home too with simpleton husband Phil (John C. Reilly), spending every night stoned on the couch in the company of best pal Bubba (Tim Blake Nelson).
Dissatisfied with her life, Justine finds herself drawn into a passionate affair with Jake Gyllenhaal’s intense and angst-ridden outsider, Holden Worther. In an affectionate nod toward Gustav Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, Justine is soon confronted with the harsh reality…
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The worst part of this film would be its boring script. Everything else works pretty well. The Good Girl has a good cast in Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal, and John C. Reilly. They all have their flaws and feel real. Aniston excels in her rather plain but pretty Justine, a young married woman who is depressed in what her life has become. Gyllenhaal plays an extremely depressed guy, who adores Catcher in the Rye. He does get annoying with all his angst, but it was still rather nice.
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i forgot jennifer aniston was actually good in something once
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Great actors. Lackluster story. The meaning of the film is there. But the storytelling ability of it suffers greatly. The overall somberness doesn't help either. Many good actors here, but I would not recommend it for anyone unless you must see their work.
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Pleasantly touching.
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The observation-comma-observation-comma-revelation pandering of the thick, goopy voice over seems to be subjecting the terrific, throwaway comedy to a horrible and unnecessary dose of genuineness and philosophical rambling. The cheating wife, the stoner husband (and his crazy buddy), the young, brooding writer - these all feel more like suggestions of characters; White has written, as he did in Orange County, a whole bunch of really funny situations (and I did laugh a great deal, especially at Blake Nelson), but he has given these laughs a flat, passable context and several marginally boring characters to create them. Aniston isn't anything spectacular, exactly; in her defense, she's playing a character who has been beaten so hard into the ground, even our predictions…
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Tired of her reputation as the pretty one from U.S. sitcom 'Friends', Jennifer Aniston attempts to expand her range by playing depressed and ordinary Justine Land in this ‘indie’ comedy drama.
Working as a discount store cashier in small-town Texas, Justine idles away her time wondering where her hopes and dreams went. Inspiration is lacking at home too with simpleton husband Phil (John C. Reilly), spending every night stoned on the couch in the company of best pal Bubba (Tim Blake Nelson).
Dissatisfied with her life, Justine finds herself drawn into a passionate affair with Jake Gyllenhaal’s intense and angst-ridden outsider, Holden Worther. In an affectionate nod toward Gustav Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, Justine is soon confronted with the harsh reality…
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If somebody pointed a gun at my head and told me to name 10 Jennifer Aniston films or I die, I'd be doomed.
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3.5 out of 5 (B)
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A lesser know film that's pretty good.