Friends With Money

"Greatly appealing if not especially adventurous, either for its director or for her admirers... in the final scene of Nicole Holofcener's "Friends With Money," a bittersweet comedy about the drama of being alive - with and without a fistful of dollars - the actress Jennifer Aniston summons up a small smile that looks a lot like a frown. It would be a stretch to say that at that moment her character, a vaguely depressed pot-smoking housekeeper named Olivia, is actually happy, but neither is she exactly unhappy. It's just that she, much as the rumpled man tucked into bed next to her says about himself, has "some issues, you know ... problems"..."

"Yes, that is Jennifer Aniston tarted up as a sexual fantasy: the ooh-la-la French maid clutching a phallic vacuum hose so her boyfriend can get off when she bends over. No, Friends With Money is not that kind of movie. Far from it. The keenly observant writer and director Nicole Holofcener isn't about to settle for giving jocks their jollies. She's interested in the shifting dynamics among real women. Listen up, guys, you might learn something... The film is a field day for actresses. And their teamwork is a thing of beauty. It touches a nerve..."

"The problem is that none of the women is particularly likeable and Olivia [Aniston] is ... just nothing in particular. She's like a character black hole into which our sympathy disappears without trace..."

"Nicole Holofcener's third feature, "Friends With Money," is a pitch-perfect ensemble comedy that burrows deep into the mind-set of white, upper middle-class Angelenos, anxious to strike the right balance among career, family, love life and money but never quite pulling it off..."

"While this doesn't add up to much more than "It's good to be rich and have friends", it's entertaining, choice performances and the laugh-out-loud quotient of a good sketch show..."

"Delicately crafted script full of witty vignettes..."