The Good Girl

Why exactly is everyone falling over themselves to praise The Good Girl? Since its premiere at Sundance last winter and its commercial release last August, critics and audiences have been quick to praise the film and the performance of its lead actress, Jennifer Aniston. While I have no problem with the latter, I have to admit I am stumped as to the reasoning behind the former. Even the advertising looked less than remarkable. Nonetheless, I recently decided to catch up with the film to see what all the fuss was about.

In The Good Girl, Ms. Aniston plays Justine, a woman trapped by her life. She hates her job at the Retail Rodeo and the people who work there and she despises what her marriage to Phil (John C. Reilly) has become. Phil’s main interest seems to be getting stoned with his house-painting partner Bubba (Tim Blake Nelson). Into this dreary picture walks Holden Worther (Jake Gyllenhaal), a quiet, introverted teen with a fixation on Catcher in the Rye. To Justine, Holden is just what she needs to break up the monotony of her life and the two begin an affair that will reveal more about their true natures than either can recognize.

On paper, this should be a slam-dunk. The director, Miquel Arteta, and writer, Mike White, last collaborated on another Sundance fave, Chuck and Buck. Here, they have assembled an able cast which, besides the actors mentioned, includes Zooey Deschannel (Almost Famous), John Carroll Lynch (Fargo) and Mr. White himself as a Bible-thumping security guard. On screen, it’s just not compelling. The film seems to hold its characters in contempt, looking down on its characters rather than at them. The plot has little to move it along, so it resorts to moments of embarrassment and humiliation for its characters. The film falls prey to one of those moments in films where the main character is presented with a clear opportunity to resolve her problems by simply opening her mouth, but she doesn’t because then the film would be over. It’s a jarring and annoying scene from which I could not recover. I loathed the film from that point on, partially because I knew what was coming and partially because I was not sure I wanted to see it.

Part of my frustration with the film is that it provides Ms. Aniston with a role 180 degrees away from Rachel Green, and she proves she more than capable of handling it even after the film betrays her. A few more roles like this and maybe she’ll be ready to make the transition to big screen that has so far eluded her. The supporting cast is uniformly good, but it’s Ms. Deschannel who deserves special praise for her work as Cheryl, a fellow Retail Rodeo employee. She has wit, looks, and a presence that makes it impossible to keep your eyes of her. After her work in films like Almost Famous and Mumford, it’s a shame that she has been “rewarded” with roles in lesser works such as The New Guy, Abandon, and this. Somebody please discover this girl!

In the end, The Good Girl is not a film that will embarrass the parties involved, but it is one from which I expected more. For me, it did manage to reinforce one important lesson: always trust your instincts. If you don’t want to see a film, don’t, no matter how much everyone tells you how much you should.

Submitted 09 November 02. Posted 23 November 02.