Rating: Summary: Good Girl....Bad Movie Review: Saw this recently at the theater with three friends, and we walked out with not much to say about it. It wasn't awful, but it was fairly unremarkable. Seemed more like a Lifetime movie than a theatrical release. Credit to Aniston for taking part in an "indie" film, but it is fairly boring fare from start to finish. I think this was marketed as a comedy, but it wasn't very funny. It wasn't very dramatic. It just "was". And the ending was kind of disappointing, in that the character is more or less in the same depressing situation as she is at the beginning of the film. This was not a movie I chose to see on my own...I kind of got dragged into it by a date, so keep that in mind when reading my review. "Notorious CHO" was playing in the adjacent theater, and I was really wishing we were there instead.
Rating: Summary: Can you really call her a "good girl"? Review: Justine (Jennifer Aniston) is a store clerk at the Retail Rodeo (kinda like K-Mart). She's not happy with her job or her husband. In fact, she's just not happy with life in general. She feels trapped. Everyday, she comes home only to see her husband on the couch smoking pot and watching TV with his [...] friend. She's trying to get pregnant and have a child, but is so far unable to. At work she becomes curious about a young employee named Holden because of his aloofness. Justine befriends Holden and together they carry on an affair. Holden becomes obsessive about seeing Justine and goes ballistic when he can't see her. Holden, as another reviewer points out, "unfortunately in the end dissolves into a kind of [...], whimpering nut case whose love is merely a product of his own delusional uniqueness and self importance...[and] leads him to suicide." (Great description!) There are the other requisite sources of conflict in the story such as the discovery of the affair and Phil's (Justine's husband) impotence that serve to keep the story interesting.Jennifer Aniston's acting is truly noteworthy in this film. She plays the role of a never-smiling, depressed woman with such a refreshing gusto (sorry for the irony). Her acting is probably one of the saving graces of this film. The plot isn't necessarily bad. In fact, the only problem I have with the story is the ending. I didn't like the way it ended. It felt like the writer was pressed for time. Call it artistic flare, but I don't buy it. The whole movie also makes you question why Justine's a "Good Girl". If you want to see Jennifer Aniston's acting taken to a whole new level, then by all means watch this film. If you're looking for a deeply sentimental, morally risque story, then skip it. LEAP rating (each out of 5): ============================ L (Language) - 3 (story develops up to a point and goes nowhere, ends somewhat abruptly as well) E (Erotica) - 1 (Aniston's first naked love scene according to interview on Leno) A (Action) - 0 (n/a) P (Plot) - 3 (smalltown girl feels trapped in life, has a fling, rights her wrongs - sorta)
Rating: Summary: How is boredom entertaining?!? Review: With all the buzz, I was anxious to see this movie. But, wow, was I disappointed. A woman bored with her hateful life meets a boy bored with his hateful life and they have an affair. THe movie was as boring as their lives. I hope this wasn't Jennifer Aniston's breakout role because I think she's capable of so much. Thoe role only gave her a chance to express the boredom she probably felt making this movie.
Rating: Summary: Aniston proves herself. Review: Justine is a woman who hates her job as a cosmetics advisor at a discount store. And she hates her marriage, too. Holden comes in the picture, and her life really gets twisted around. Jennifer Aniston (best know for her role as Rachel on 'Friends')does an excellent job here, proving that she can go beyond types and do a range of characters. The movie only falters within last five to ten minutes, when it tries to wrap itself up too neatly.
Rating: Summary: aniston in a different role Review: This is definitely not "Friends". Jennifer Aniston plays Justine, a working-class woman in a small southern town who is dissatisfied with her life, her pot-smoking husband who is a house painter, and her job as a clerk at a chain store. She longs for....more. More suddenly appears in the person of 22 year old Tom who has renamed himself "Holden" since he's a devotee of the novel "Catcher in the Rye." "No one has ever got me," he tells her, but soon Justine and Holden seem to "get" ( i.e. understand) each other all too well. He's a callow, immature youth imprisoned by his own dreams and even more by his pretensions. The plot quickly grows complicated, and Justine is forced to make some hard choices. While there are comic touches, this film is dark and melancholy, and far from the rather escapist entertainment of Aniston's famous tv show.
Rating: Summary: Terrible movie-how can anyone give 4 stars? Review: Good girl is a bad movie. Terrible girlie flick. I regret not walking out. Waited to see why rated so high. Nothing. Transparent boring storyline from minute one. I think girls want to see this actress do well, and be caught up in the fairytale with her real husband.
Rating: Summary: Disappointing Review: I was very excited to go see this movie, and extremely disappointed with what I saw. The story tells of a girl (Jennifer Aniston) who hates her life and wants freedom from the bonds of matrimony that tie her to her pathetic, pot-head husband. Throughout the entire film you're stuck thinking how dense this character must be, because she never actually does anything to help her situation. At the finish of the film, I found myself sitting in my seat wondering "Is that it?" I can't believe I wasted ...on the price of admission. Why did I even bother to give the film one star? Despite the flimsy plot, Jennifer Aniston did give a fairly good performance given the script she was working with.
Rating: Summary: Last's best chance Review: There's quite a lot to say about _The Good Girl_, a different sort of black comedy that parades its humor like a scythe. Jennifer Aniston gives the performance of her career in this tale of mid-west Amercian life going wrong. Aniston plays Justine Last, a disenchanted 30-year-old woman who embarks on an affair with 22-year-old Tom "Holden" Worther, a disgruntled fellow retail employee and college dropout "put upon the world" and its hypocrisy. Wielding romantic passions worthy of his two literary namesakes-- Salinger's Holden Caufield and Goethe's young Werther-- Worther jousts emotionally with Last throughout the movie, at some points seeming a lovesick madman, at others appearing remarkably vulnerable. This is the strength of the script, that every character is presented ironically and almost every situation appears in a twilight world of alternate love and hate, concerns for self and for others contorting-- twisted and flurried in a sane insanity of wild abandon. While an almost uncontrollably bleak film, _The Good Girl_ will present to the sharp viewer who is willing enough to go for the ride 93 minutes of random and scattered truths about existence in the real world. In Justine, a remarkable creation fleshed out gloriously by Aniston, we see a woman who perceives her own situation better than we do, and whose moral confusion drives her to acts that arguably deepen her solitude while relieving it. Don't miss John C. Reilly as Last's husband, either: in a movie packed with great performances, his and Aniston's roles are worth the ride all by themselves.
Rating: Summary: A comedy that leaves you in suspense! Review: Jennifer Aniston is the bright sunshine girl who really acted well in this flick. It's neither typical date movie nor a romantic comedy. It's really funny and keeps you in suspense. This is Aniston's best work at the movies! It's a great cast ensemble and is award-worthy. It's a different comedy and has one of the week's highest screen average, 14k. It's an emotional feature where you'd see Aniston in a completely different role and a completely different attitude that you'd see her with in "Friends"! The movie's worth a watch! The movie revolves around Justine (Aniston) who plays a surly worker at Retail Rodeo. She's stressed out and sick of her pot-smoking husband. Soon she meets a fellow worker at Retail Rodeo who is in a worse place than she's in. They soon fall in love but can't seem to keep it a secret. Now she has lots of decisions to make! The movie wasn't released on a lot of theatres but is quite good and worth checking out! ----Ahmed Mashhood
Rating: Summary: The Good Girl Really Is Review: Being a HUGE Jake Gyllenhaal fan, I was really stoked to see this film -- especially because of the added bonus of seeing John C. Riley and Tim Blake Nelson. And I am happy to report I was not in the least disappointed! At times I didn't know whether to laugh or gasp in shock because this movie really flips certain types of humor on its head (just like the creative team Arteta worked with did in the fabulous Chuck & Buck). There are moments that all the characters face dark desperation and a bevy of choices that are none too appealing, but in the end, things work out in the best way for everyone (except for Gyllenhaall's Holden). I thought all the performances were top notch (pleasantly surprised by Jennifer Aniston as the heroine), the writing spectacular,and the casting superb. I walked away happy, sad, and pleasantly buzzing. Along with me, the entire audience went on an intense but hysterical journey with these characters, and all left the theater talking animatedly about that journey. Arteta has produced another great flick -- can't wait for the next one! Oh, and Jake Gyllenhaal -- what can I say? That guy has the most intense eyes I've ever seen. He is one talented young man, and I am a life-long fan of whatever he does!
|