大象传媒

Cash can't buy you happiness - or can it? Indie filmmaker Nicole Holofcener (Lovely & Amazing) leaves this open to question in her engaging comedy drama Friends With Money. As teacher-turned-maid Olivia, Jennifer Aniston is down on her luck and down on herself, but her wealthy pals are just as wanting in self-esteem. It's a delicately crafted script full of witty vignettes although it does feel oddly lopsided because the supporting characters are more roundly portrayed.

Olivia has yet to find a direction in life but that only partly explains why the character feels so thin. It's actually the incongruous blend of good looks, intelligence and self-loathing that leaves you drawing a blank. Holofcener doesn't give any clue as to why Olivia allows the charmless Mike (Scott Caan) to follow her around at work and submit to his requests for sex and a cut of her wages. Aniston is, as always, likeable but she inspires pity instead of empathy.

"WRYLY AMUSING"

The film really belongs to Frances McDormand and Catherine Keener (in her third collaboration with Holofcener). Each appears to be living The American Dream while inwardly falling to pieces. Rather than face a midlife crisis, McDormand launches into wryly amusing tirades on the decline of western civilisation spurred by lost parking spaces and queue-jumping shoppers. Meanwhile Keener trades insults with her husband and screenwriting partner (Jason Isaacs) when their latest opus hits a brick wall. As a patronising society wife, Joan Cusack has some funny moments too. It's a shame the film ends so unconvincingly, but Friends With Money is still rich in insights.