The Leader

[Click to enlarge]

Sex and the City fans, this is your cup of tea: a movie about the trials and tribulations of four middle-aged women who are all trying to cope with the strain of marriage problems, or lack thereof. With an A-squad cast of very successful actresses and the fluffy relationship-based plot outline, Friends with Money takes you on that oft-traveled road down into the depths of suburban gossip cinema.

Olivia (Jennifer Aniston) is meant to be the main protagonist of this tale. A struggling maid and habitual pot head, Olivia is the youngest of this group of friends, the poorest and the only member of the group that is not married, much to the disapproval of her friends who (surprise, surprise) try like hell to set her up. Although the rest of the gang is constantly arguing with Olivia that she needs to hurry up and get married, this is no indication that the other three are living in marital paradise. Christine (Catherine Keener) is constantly bickering with her husband about not caring what other people think and about having habitual bad breath, while he retorts by telling her that she has a fat butt. All of this arguing is normally done across the room of the couple's office while the addition of a new wing in their house is happening all around them. Franny (Joan Cusack) has the least amount of problems out of the whole group. The only problem I noticed about this character is that she just so happens to get roped into her friends' problems. Finally, there is Jane (Frances McDormand), a successful clothing designer whose husband everybody swears is gay. The most outspoken member of the group, Jane refuses to wash her hair for reasons unknown to her friends and has a problem with losing her temper with strangers (and karma, I might add, has a way of dealing with that). So this troupe of women sit around and gossip about an absentee group member - be it one of them or their husbands - but mostly they talk about Olivia and her need to get married. So they try to set her up with Mike (Scott Caan), who turns out to be a complete disaster. Seriously, of all of the movies in this genre, Scott Caan's character is the biggest jerk that I have come across.

Altogether, I thought that this was one of the better romance/drama/comedies that I have seen in awhile. Director Nicole Holofcener coincidentally directed Lovely and Amazing, Walking and Talking and five episodes of Sex and the City, all of which share the style that you would expect from this genre. Friends with Money shows the viewer that there are subsequent difficulties concerning married life and single life and places them shoulder-to-shoulder with each other. This juxtaposition asks the audience if the idea of getting married and having a financially stable career is worth the cost of happiness.

3 of 5

Article Tools