Rating- * * * * (4/5)
The transition from television actor to film actor is an incredibly difficult one, especially when the kind of television you’re known for is sit-com and the kind of film you’re trying to do is drama. Jennifer Aniston has done film before but nothing with the kind of seriousness and emotional depth as The Good Girl. Aniston takes on a role in The Good Girl that is entirely the opposite of the character that made her famous, the sexy, smart, care-free New York socialite Rachel Green on the far-too-long-running NBC sitcom Friends. She plays Justine, a lower-middle class Texas woman who works at the makeup counter in a local drugstore. She is married to a pot-smoking house painter named Phil (John C. Reilly) who is usually too high to notice that Justine may not be happy with their marriage or her life. As if things weren’t bad enough at home, Justine also has to deal with her co-workers at the drugstore like Gwen (Deborah Rush) who gossips away all day about people Justine doesn’t even know and Corny the security guard (played by Mike White who co-wrote the script) who politely asks Justine to join his Bible study and, when she declines the offer, tells her that it’s fine because he really doesn’t care if she burns in the eternal flames of hell. Most of these details, while certainly infuriating to Justine, add a good bit of dark comedy to the film but one problem Justine comes upon is good bit more serious than the rest. A young man, who calls himself Holden (Jake Gyllenhaal) after the existential, nihilistic character from Catcher in the Rye, starts working at the drug store with Justine and the start to get to know each other. Holden’s disenchantment with life and his desire to get away from it all intrigues Justine and she begins to form a sort of fascination with Holden. She feels like she has finally found someone that she can identify with. However, when their affair begins, she quickly realizes that Holden is just a boy and a person like all the other people she knows. She begins to realize, along with Holden, that no one can really ever understand her, a thought that terrifies Holden but seems to be somehow grounding for Justine. It seems to be a sort of revelation to her that at last she knows for certain that she is ultimately alone in the world. If nothing else, she can stop looking for someone else that understands her. Justine, as confused and desperate as she is, is ultimately the smartest person we see in the film, partly because she realizes that nothing she feels really matters that much and so trying to explain herself to others is an exercise in futility. A great example of this is when she casually agrees to have sex with Phil’s best friend Bubba (Tim Blake Nelson) in order to keep him quiet about her affair. Bubba tries to explain that he needs Justine to have sex with him in order to free his soul from its burdens, but of course she doesn’t then he’ll be forced to ruin her marriage. Justine is a woman who, similar to the women of The Hours, realizes suddenly that her life does not have much meaning in the scheme of things and that she doesn’t much like living in the world anymore, and who could blame her? When her world is full of people like those we see in the film, humanity certainly doesn’t get a great defense to Justine’s criticisms of it. This is a very thoughtful film and at times very funny, but it is also quietly disturbing in many ways, especially in its ending. Aniston has shown herself to be an actress of great skill and one who can certainly carry her wait in a dramatic film. I believe The Good Girl is the first step in what will surely be a long and prolific career for Aniston. There are also some great comedic performances by Reilly, brilliant as ever in this film especially in his scenes with Nelson, and by Mike White as a sort of male counterpart to Dana Carvey’s Church Lady. This is not a very entertaining film but then it’s not meant to be and it certainly works as what it is. I recommend this film for its originality of setting an existentialist journey in a Southern small town and for its many great performances by some of Hollywood’s top talent.