Friends With Money

The most striking aspect of this film is its stand-out cast of women. Franny is played by Joan Cusack, Jane by the brilliant Frances McDormand, Christine by Catherine Keener and Olivia by Jennifer Aniston.

Each of the well-crafted characters has something most of us can relate to, (with probably the exception of Franny, who is not only obscenely rich but seemingly contented in her marriage!). And although the film is on one obvious level about female friendships, it is much more than your average “chick flick”. It has layers of complexity and well-handled themes involving the stages in the women’s lives as well as the men in their lives.

Christine works with her husband Patrick (Jason Isaacs) as a scriptwriter. Their lives are too closely intertwined workwise and they are rapidly drifting apart on every other level, trying desperately to pretend things are OK by extending their house. Jane is the classic menopausal woman, who, despite a loving husband and child, and a successful career, feels her life is ebbing away, and desperately tries to assert herself, often inappropriately, as a way of expressing an inexplicable rage with her situation. Her husband, Aaron (Simon McBurney), is suspected by the other women of being a closet gay because he is slightly effeminate. Franny, despite her wealth, still has the odd tiff with her husband Matt (Greg Germann), over things as prosaic as how much money is spent on their child’s sneakers. Yet when they see Olivia they all assume a self-righteous satisfaction with their own lives, and thankfulness that at least they are all well-off. The film examines the idea of money as a link or a divisive factor between friends and asks whether the people we befriend when young would necessarily be those we would hook up with when we are older and our lives have become more defined.

The irony of this set-up is, of course, that while Olivia is seen by her friends as being the worse off, she in fact has hope about what may yet happen in her life. For the other three there is the sense, often so hard to come to grips with, of “this is my life, and it’s not really going to amount to anything amazingly different from what it is now.”.  The film offers no really dramatic story arcs nor glib answers to any of these people’s lives. Rather Holofcener is content to give us a glimpse into the women’s lives and relationships, with their everyday troubles and frustrations, well-observed interactions and occasional amusing minutiae of married behaviour.

The performances of all the female leads are strong, with McDormand being a stand-out and Aniston surprisingly good with her understated performance. The handling of the character of Aaron is especially sensitive, with a subtle and well-measured performance from McBurney. Despite being a modest film, Friends with Money tackles some large issues with wit and intelligence.

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