The Good Girl Starring Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal Directed by Miguel Arteta Rated R for strong violence **1/2 out of 4 Stars, Movie Grade: B-

Theatrical Release: August 30, 2002

Running time: 93 minutes

by Kevin Lang

In "The Good Girl," directed by Miguel Arteta, Jennifer Aniston gave a well-rounded excellent performance playing Justine, a depressed wife who spent her days longing for a change as she worked at a local discount store. Aniston was the best thing about the film, which was trapped too deeply within the narrow viewpoints and self-loathing of its two central characters to focus on any sort of broader picture or societal critique that it could have offered. Early in the film I grew sympathetic to Aniston's Justine. Her husband Phil (John C. Relly) was a house painter who spent his time off getting high in front of the tube with his best friend and painting partner Bubba (Tim Blake Nelson, "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?"). This was instead of spending his time off with Justine, who had wanted to start a family, but had been unable to get pregnant.

Justine found escape in the arms of a twenty-two-year-old fellow discount store employee (Jake Gyllenhaal, "October Sky," 1999) who gave himself the name Holden, based on the central character in J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye." Later, we found out that Holden's real name was Tom, but that he saw it as his slave name put upon him by his parents who spent their time together in a hypnotized like state in front of the TV. They were reminiscent of Ricky's parents from "American Beauty," especially Ricky's mother who was emotionally detached from the world around her and from the son in front of her. Holden went on about how no one understands him, and by the end we realized that he was still just a boy longing for attention that he had never received, from parents who were far removed from his life.

"The Good Girl" created a town of sullen characters, most of whom seemed satisfied with their seemingly mundane lives, which were spent working jobs that they hated, and coming home to stare at the TV until it was time to go to bed in order to wake up to more of the same, or else they didn't realize that there could be more to life, and that they could be happier. Instead they lived like zombies, slowly wasting away until they seemed to be only soulless and dreamless shells of people who no longer had the ability to know that anything else existed for them. Even their eyes and faces (probably enhanced with makeup) made them look like they were suffering from a horrible disease, likely what the screenwriter thought of as being life itself. The dark blue, almost black half circles under their eyes seemed a little over the top. I was waiting for them to stick their arms straight out in front of them and start to converge on Justine.

In order to keep her affair with Holden a secret, Justine slept with her husband's best friend Bubba, who had seen her at the motel with Holden. It was perhaps here that I lost respect for her, and no longer cared too much about what happened to her. I wanted to see Justine step up and take control of her ailing situation, instead of trying to do everything that she could to cover it up. She never did face what she'd done, and although the effects of not doing so caught up to her, she was back continuing her same restless life at the end, skakin' but not stirred enough to change. This time she seemed to accept her state without further protest.

In the end "The Good Girl" was a rather discouraging film that seemed like it didn't want to end with a "mainstream," redemptive tone. Rather, its attempt at realism acted to distance us from Justine, detach us further from the movie, and leave us wondering what all the hype was about. Of course there was the un-Friend-like Jennifer Aniston who stretched her acting ability to levels that we have not seen from her before. This was a positive sign for her career. She's finally leaving the apartment with Monica, and she's possibly on her way to a place of her own.

"The Good Girl" Review written September 2, 2002, CTF.