The Good Girl
Review by Clint Morris
 In
The Good Girl, Jennifer Aniston plays someone you normally
wouldn’t think the star of TV’s "Friends"
would be interested in playing – a frumpy, very unglamorous
checkout chick with her hair pulled back in a slapdash ponytail.
The real transformation lies within though, and Aniston’s
film career might soar to heights she’d never expected.
It’s amazing what a little dolling-down can do.
Justine (Aniston) is a despondent discount store employee
in a tiny Texas town, her segregation and restlessness are
overt and her discomfort very evident.
Justine works at the cosmetics counter, where the uniformity
of long days under fluorescent lights is broken up only by
insubordinate public address announcements from her co-worker,
Cheryl (Zooey Deschanel).
Justine’s been married for seven years to the oafish
Phil (John C.Reilly), but he doesn’t seem to cherish
his time with wife anymore, instead rathering to veg out on
the coach all day and smoke weed with pal, Bubba (Tim Blake
Nelson).
Enter, Holden (Jake Gyllenhaal). New at the retail store,
Justine takes an instant shine to the mysterious youngster
and finds herself soon caught up in a swirling affair with
him, if only because they both share the same pain. "I
saw in your eyes that you hate the world," Justine tells
him the first time they're alone together. "I hate it
too."
But just when the affair seemed like the biggest secret this
‘Good Girl’ was ever likely to posses, Bubba discovers
Justine's infidelity and blackmails her into having sex with
him. On top of that, she’s just discovered she’s
about to become a mother, and Phil’s sterile so the baby
isn’t his...
From Miguel Arteta and writer Mike White, The Good Girl
is definitely a novel movie.
It’s dark, somewhat creepy, a little demented and a
little humorous. A mish mash of romance and ruse, it’s
story unravels nicely, up until, say, the third act when things
start to become a little bit too cyclical, and for a minute
there you’ll swear you’ve seen less melodrama in
an episode of "General Hospital".
Still, it’s the kind of movie where the performances
are what we have come to see, and if you remember anyone’s
stellar turn from this flick, let it be Jennifer Aniston;
she really has gone out of her way to prove she really is
an excessively absorbing actress.
3 out of 5
The Good Girl
Australian release: Thursday April 24th
Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal, John C.Reilly, Tim
Blake Nelson, Zooey Deschanel.
Director: Miguel Arteta.
Website: Click
here
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