Friends with Money

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What’s the Story?

FRIENDS WITH MONEY is a look at women's friendships. As the title suggests, the primary complicating element in these friendships is money. "Poor Olivia" (Jennifer Aniston), as her friends call her, is actually poor, at least compared to them. She's also single and working as a maid, both life developments that make them worry about her. Her friends, Christine (Catherine Keener), Franny (Joan Cusack), and Jane (Frances McDormand), though married and well-off, are not without problems of their own.

Is It Any Good?

Like Nicole Holofcener's first two films, Walking and Talking and Lovely & Amazing, Friends with Money treats its characters with respect and in detail. While the movie mostly takes the women characters' perspectives, it's not to judge men or anyone else, but to examine that very idea, that perspective is limited, and it's also what you've got. The several experiences fit in something like a narrative structure, but not quite. Scenes cut from one woman to another, their stories expanding and commenting on one another, leaving pieces and sometimes coming together.

Each story asks viewers to rethink their assumptions. The friends do come to understand and cherish one another, but not without troubles along the way. The friends don't actually resolve all their differences or frustrations. But that is the beauty of Friends with Money. While the final plot contrivance that brings Olivia round to having money is unconvincing, it might also be a critique of movie-style happy endings. Or maybe not.