Customer Reviews

The Good Girl

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(74)
3 star:		(31)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(55)

 

 

With very little in the way of pre-publicity, THE GOOD GIRL crept into limited release and is only now being disseminated into some more mainstream theaters. There seems to be a trend here in putting the really superb, message films in the small theaters and letting word of mouth propel them into the public eye. And perhaps this technique underlines the importance of these small films - no ballyhoo, just concentrated fine work speaking for itself.

THE GOOD GIRL is a well written, well directed strange story that adresses the Kafkaesque microcosms we all create. The setting is basically in and around a Rodeo Retail store in a small Texas town, that kind of claustrophobic place where everyone seems 'just fine' on the surface but within the shell is a lonely, borderline personality waiting to escape. The story concentrates on one character's (Justine) attempt to find something better in life, but the consequences of that decision bleed into the lives of everyone in this samll town.

When the list for Oscar nominees begins to form, surely Jennifer Aniston's name will be at the top. Her performance is so well crafted and nuanced that despite her character's failings she maintains our empathy. This is a superb character role that deserves the highest kudos. The supporting cast is equally exceptional; Zooey Deschanel creates a zany, bizarre, hilarious yet real person (a bid for Best Supporting Actress),and John C. Reilly, Tim Blake Nelson, Mike White and Jake Gyllenhaal all are born to their roles. The director, Michael Arteta, makes the most of these gifted actors and creates an ensemble performance that stays in your mind long after the movie credits are over. This little gem of a film is bound to appeal to everyone who can transpose the atmosphere here created into the variations of despair we all create and cope with. A superb movie, this.

Justine is depressed. She hates her job at the Retail Rodeo, she comes home everyday to find her husband smoking pot and watching TV with his loser friend, her life is going nowhere. That is, until she meets Holden. Holden and Justine have something in common, they both hate their lives. For awhile, Justine and Holden seem to be in love and everything is great. It's not too long, however before things start going sour.

Jennifer Aniston is nothing short of spectacular in this role. I went to see this thinking I'd have trouble believing "Rachel" from Friends as a depressed loser. Surprisingly, I left the theater wondering if I'd believe that this depressed loser could also be "Rachel". That's how incredibly transformed Jennifer Aniston is. I can't remember her even smiling in this. Jake Gyllenhaal is also terrific as Holden. I also love the one female employee (I can't remember her name) who makes those hilarious announcements over the store's PA. In fact, the whole cast is consistantly brilliant.
The flaw in this film is the script. Don't get me wrong, it's written extremely well. It is never cliched, never predictable, nothing like that. The problem is there isn't enough plot, if you know what I mean. The movie is great for the first 40 minutes, but then you start to wonder if it's building up to anything at all. The conclusion is satisfactory, but overall this could have been better if given a quick rewrite.

Anyway, despite the plot that could've used a bit more story, this movie is more than worth the time and money. Jennifer's performance is EASILY worth a best actress statue, but I seriously doubt that, given all the other great movies this year, this movie will be recognized by the Academy.

Jennifer Aniston does a surprisingly good job at portraying Justine, the fed-up Retail Rodeo employee who begins an elicit affair with Holden, a co-worker 8 years her junior. I find it funny that one of the reviewers thought of this movie as a "comedy". The dialogue is humorous at times, but I think this story has a lot more to it than meets the eye.

Justine sees her life as a prison, as does Holden. He swings open the door of curiosity in her life that makes her wonder if there's more for her in the world. Yet, the "good girl" mentality she holds throughout the movie obligates her to deny her feelings for Holden and stick with her pot-smoking, impotent husband.

As you watch, you at first root for Holden and Justine. You want them to escape their small town and find out what life holds for them. Then you start feeling like that isn't right either; Holden is, after all, only 22...and a depressed, rather mentally disturbed 22 at that. Justine sees in him a possibility, but still a bleak possibility.

This leads to a battle of motivations: do you stick with the life you are familiar with and is socially acceptable, even if you're depressed out of your mind, or do you escape into a life more exciting that could very well be as bad or even worse? This is what makes me not know what to think. Justine obviously has personal issues she needs to work out, but she sees her answers in other people and not in herself. This makes her a sympathetic character, but you hate her all at the same time.

The story is very well-conceived, and the actors do a marvelous job portraying Justine's equally-dysfunctional co-workers, family, and friends.

The deleted scenes on the DVD are funny, and some would have been helpful to explain some of the progression in the story. However, the movie is mysteriously captivating on its own, and I think Aniston should be recognized for this gross departure from her flaky counterpart on "Friends".

This is an odd movie to write a review for. However, since most people reading this are looking for an answer to the question, "Should I watch this or not?" I'll give you a quick answer: Yes. It's worth every penny- for a rental, at least.

"The Good Girl" is like no movie I've ever seen. That's not a compliment, and it's not a criticism, it's just an observation. I don't want to pigeonhole it into any one genre. The movie has plenty of very funny moments, but it's not a comedy. It's also rather depressing (at first) but it's not "black." It's dramatic, but can't really be classified as a typical drama (although that's the section it's in at the video store).

In short, it's just a bunch of stuff that happens.

THE GOOD:

There are a lot of very funny moments that will have you laughing out loud- sometimes at moments that you're not sure you should be laughing. The cast performs every character in "The Good Girl" superbly, from Jennifer Aniston's ramshackle Justine to Jake Gyllenhaal's sullen Holden to Justine's slovenly but affable husband Phil (played by John C. Reilly). Of course, I must mention Zooey Deschanel as cynical cashier Cheryl, one of the funniest and all-around best supporting acting performances I've ever seen. And yes, I am now officially a fan of Jennifer Aniston, even though I'm decidedly a non-fan of "Friends" (I tried watching it after seeing "The Good Girl," but couldn't get into it).

THE BAD:

Although the acting is great, it sometimes seems like they're acting in different movies. Holden's movie is a bleak tragedy, Justine's is a finding-yourself drama, and Phil's is "Half Baked" (cheap joke, I know). Justine is a hard character to empathize with, because you come to dislike Justine's paramour Holden more than her husband.

However, you do want Justine to find happiness. But you know it's going to be hard for her to do so with any of the people in the movie. She's not a heroine, she's not a villain; she's just a human. She screwed up and she knows it. It'll help to keep in mind while watching this movie that all it's characters should not be looked at as either protagonists or antagonists, they should be looked at as humans.

The movie left me a little depressed after watching it, but the more I thought about it the more I liked it. It's a good cautionary tale. One of the things that tells me if a movie is good or not is how much it sticks with me after I see it. I rented this, watched it twice, and cannot get it out of my head. I'm planning to buy it.

"The Good Girl" is good, and it's worth a rental.

(Assuming that the reader has read the synopsis...)
Wow, Jennifer Aniston actually CAN act and Jake Gyllenhaal was very good, (pay attention to the little things he adds to the story and his character). I personally wouldn't have even watched this movie in the first place if it wasn't for the fact that Jake Gyllenhaal is one of my favorite actors, but I am glad I did. The story really isn't that complex or abnormal, just one of one woman's unsatisfaction with her life, and how she realizes that she has the power to make life what she wants it to be. She thinks she has found someone in Holden who, unlike her stoner husband, can really understand her. The end is the unique part, you can make of it whatever you choose. You can look at it as dark, a comedy, or light with its dark parts. This is a film that will leave a lasting impression on you, and make you take a step back and look at your own life. Basically, the story isn't complex, but the insight to the deepest of human emotions and tendencies make this a worth-while film.

I first saw this film because Jake Gylenhaal was becoming more and more popular and i wanted to see all of his films. I was not expecting a whole lot out of this film but i was shocked when i ended up loving it! Hardly anyone hs even heard of this film because it was a more independant film which was shown at the Sundance Film Festival, but it deserves recognition. I would recommend that anyone who enjoys dark and insightful films to see this. It is a wonderful film with great performances including Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal, John C. Reiley, and Tim Blake Nelson. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Jennifer Anniston leads a carefully constructed yet deadening life as Justine in "The Good Girl". In one of those dead-end Texas towns (which I suspect exist largely on backlots in Hollywood) Justine works a dead-end job at a local department store, is married to a dead-end shlub (the latest in a long line of amiable, moron-losers played by John C. Reilly) and has nothing to look forward to. Bubba seems incapable of having that same perspective - largely because he spends most of his free time smoking pot with his best friend, Bubba (Tim Blake Nelson - late of "Holes" and "Minority Report"). Justine is that critical age, when people who had thought themselves young adults realize that middle-age is in sight, and they've got nothing to show for it. The world that had seemed a candy store to her when she was young, now looks like death row - bereft of possibilities. Things change with the arrival of Holden (Jake Gyllenhaal) a wide-eyed young dreamer who hates his life, but has ideas for changing things. Holden is a dreamer who patterns his life on "Catcher in the Rye" and the sense that he was meant for bigger things than their town allows. Sensing Justine's wanting spirit, Holden fixates on her, spurring feelings Justine as well. Much of the "Good Girl" follows Justine's dilemma - stick with her hated existence, or take a chance on a reconstructed one with Holden. Though soon realizing that Holden's sense of imagination means trouble, the dilemma only deepens, and Justine only pines harder for a new life that's increasingly unattainable. Never making a final decision, Justine verges in one direction, then the other - spurning, then giving into Holden. Unfortunately, Justine will also learn the consequences that her new relationship will have, and how the tottering of her carefully-balanced life affects the delicate illusions of life for those around her - Holden, her husband and even Bubba.

"The Good Girl" veers between being a dark comedy and a serious character study - sort of like "In the Bedroom" with gallows humor. The script pokes relentless fun at the small-town Texas characters (a compulsively fundamentalist security guard, a goth co-worker, and her dead-pan boss) but remains weighted down by Justine's abject life. At its worst, "Girl" is also infected by the same annoyingly arch and flighty personality that drives Holden - but our lives aren't as bleak as Justine's, so we're not as easily fooled, and we're left with a script that tries to be much smarter than any of its players. It's almost as if Holden wrote it. If "Girl" does succeed it's because the leads put more soul into their characters than the script does - with kudos to Reilly and Nelson. If Bubba and Justine's husband aren't exactly sympathetic characters, they are characters who manage to inject some surprise into their predictable roles. In short, this isn't a flick for a light-night at home, but it's one you won't soon forget.

I believe this film is so much more deserving than its negative reviews posted on this site. Surprisingly, some have described it as being boring and pointless. Perhaps the movie IS boring in a way, but this was only done to portray the dull, lower middle-class lifestyle that the wife (Jennifer Aniston) has lived out each and every day. She gets to a point where she begins to question whether she's taken the right path in her life and whether she wants to continue it or to start a new one. That is the entire focus of the film, and there are certainly a lot of people who could relate to this premise.

The cast is very good, but the actor I specifically want to mention is Tim Blake Nelson, who plays the husband's idiot friend, Bubba. He's such a riot! You will immediately recognize this guy from OH BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? when he escaped from the chain gang with George Clooney. He seems to play the exact same person in this movie, but man, he plays it with such hillbilly-ish perfection!

What a pleasant surprise! Having watched many episodes of Friends, I was not prepared for the quality of performance that Jennifer Aneston delivered in Good Girl. This is not the type of feel good film that you forget five minutes after you leave the theater. It is a powerful reflection of certain aspects of life in America. Because of it's intensity and depth, it took a while for me to absorb the effects of this film. I judge the quality of a film, in part by how I feel about it a few days after watching it. This is one that I could see again.
I won't reveal the content because each viewer will experience it differently. If you are looking for something light and fluffy, this may not be for you. Reality can be disturbing, at the same time it can be very satisfying.
The cast and direction were wonderful

First of all, I just have to say that even though the reviews on the DVD box and even some reviewers here have called this a comedy, it's not.
The story centers around Justine (Aniston), a woman who is discontent with her boring job and her (really) fat husband. She has an affair with a younger coworker (gyllenhaal), which sets off a chain of events that ends in tragedy. I really enjoyed the movie. The movie creates this unique universe that makes you feel how bored Aniston's character is with her life.
This movie is a very good drama. It pulls you into the story emotionally, and while it's not the most complex movie I've ever watched, a lot of emotional things happen. I was really surprised at how good of an actress Jennifer Aniston is. The only thing I'd ever seen her in was Friends, so I didn't really expect her acting to be as good as it was. Everyone's performances were very good, for that matter.
Bottom line: check this movie out.