The Good Girl

Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal, John C. Reilly, Tim Blake Nelson
Directed by: Miguel Arteta
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Box Office: $14,018,296
2002

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Unhappy retail store clerk Justine (Jennifer Aniston) enters a relationship with new worker Holden (Jake Gyllenhaal), who acts like Holden Caufield from The Catcher in the Rye. Justine's life begins spiralling out of control when her husband's friend (Tim Blake Nelson) threatens to uncover the affair to Justine's husband (John C. Reilly). Now, Justine is faced with a difficult decision- continue the relationship with Holden, or return to her husband and live an unhappy life.

Review:

Tim: This is really not a good movie at all. I only watched it in the first place because I read that Gyllenhaal's character acted like he was Holden Caufield from The Catcher in the Rye. I really love that book. Unfortunately, Gyllenhaal doesn't really act like Holden at all. That disappointment right there was enough to ruin the movie for me. However, I stuck with it and tried to keep an open mind in case the film would be better than I expected. Nope. It was worse.

The Good Girl is another one of those movies with all loser characters (although some have at least a few redeeming characteristics). I hate movies with no one I can really like or root for. Every character in this movie acts in either a foolish, wrong, or stupid manner and it is difficult to watch at times.

Jennifer Aniston does not completely waste her time with this film, however. She proves with this very different role that she will indeed have a career past Friends. She gives a very good performance. She has very little chemistry with Jake Gyllenhaal, however. I'm a big fan of Gyllenhaal and while he is decent here, the performance is not up to the same standard that he is capable of achieving.

The Good Girl is a dark, depressing film that is oftentimes boring and I would just have rather not seen it at all.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 4.5


If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Donnie Darko, The Day After Tomorrow, Moonlight Mile, Bruce Almighty, Along Came Polly