Do not go to see Jennifer Aniston in "The Good Girl" if you want to watch a warm, fuzzy love story. I'll straight out make that warning to anyone out there looking for another feel-good romantic comedy from our favorite "Friends" star. Do go if you want to see an incredibly good, marvelously acted film that is anything but typical.
"The Good Girl," directed by Miguel Arteta (of "Six Feet Under"), chronicles the story of Justine Last (Aniston), a discontent 30-year-old woman. Nothing in Justine's life, from her incessantly stoned husband Phil (John C. Reilly) to her dreary job at Retail Rodeo, seems to make her very happy.
So when a mysterious young man who calls himself Holden (Jake Gyllenhaal) comes to work at Retail Rodeo, Justine is given what she perceives as the chance of a lifetime -- the opportunity to leave the drabness of her life behind and begin an affair with the dark, attractive Holden.
From this point on, the plot takes several twists and turns, not one of which can be predicted. Just when the audience breathes a sigh of relief, confident that Justine's situation cannot worsen, irony rears its ugly head.
Although there are certainly moments in the film that will make you laugh out loud, this film is in many ways extremely dark and cynical. Even stronger than the darkness, however, is the beauty that is born of this frank cynicism.
Perhaps the best example of this dark beauty is found in Justine's relationship with her husband. Phil, who at first glance appears to be a deadbeat husband, spending all of his spare time watching television and smoking marijuana, eventually proves himself to be a good, simple man who wants nothing more than to please the wife he has loved for seven years.
"The Good Girl" is one of the most perfectly cast films I have ever seen. Aniston does an incredible job of dropping her ultra-familiar Rachel Green persona and embracing the much less glamorous role of Justine. The character of Justine is so real, so believable and so beautifully acted that you will forget that you have ever seen Aniston in another role.
The supporting cast is incredible as well. Reilly is wonderful as Justine's oafish, lazy, yet eventually endearing husband, and no one but Tim Blake Nelson ("O Brother, Where Art Thou?") could play Phil's creepy, misguided best friend Bubba.
Last, but not least, Gyllenhaal does an all-too-convincing job of playing the extremely disturbed and somewhat overzealous Holden, who becomes frighteningly wrapped up in his relationship with Justine.
Gyllenhaal, an up-and-coming young actor ("October Sky," "Lovely and Amazing"), does an ingenious job of catching the audience between adoring his earnestness and puppy-dog love for Justine and fearing his very apparent mental disturbance.
This movie is not a happy one. You will not leave the theater with a sense of peace or rightness with the world. Most of the characters, the trials they face and the decisions they make will make you squirm in your seat.
The lengths to which Justine goes to hide her infidelity from her husband will probably shock and upset you, and the characters of Bubba and Holden both seem to be teetering on the edge of sanity.
This discomfort, however, is Arteta's goal with this film. "The Good Girl" is meant to disclose a more unpleasant side of the world we live in -- one where not everyone is beautiful or wealthy, or even happy or sane. This movie, not in spite of its unabashed frankness but rather because of it, is an utterly beautiful, genius piece of artwork.
Read More
The best albums of 2014
By Noah Zeidman | December 4, 2014Across genres, it has been a pretty great year in music.
Top 10 movies of 2014
December 4, 2014This has been an excellent year for film, offering everything from gripping blockbusters to innovative personal films.
Iggy Azalea is “Reclassified”
December 4, 2014It has become common practice among music artists to repackage their albums in an effort to simultaneously boost single sales and dish out new content by slightly renaming the album or slapping “Deluxe” onto the title.
