Posted: 08/23/2002

The Good Girl

(2002)

by Hank Yuloff

Ms. Aniston proves she’s as good as her claim in the new indie film scripted by the writer/director of Chuck & Buck.

Justine Last has been The Good Girl all her life. She grew up, stayed out of trouble, got married to a man she fell in love with and they began their life together. But that’s as far as it got. Seven years later, she is stuck in a less than boring job in retail hell, her husband (John C. Reilly from Magnolia and The Anniversary Party) is a house painter who’s idea of fun is to watch TV while getting stoned, and they have gotten no where near her “goal” of starting a family. Worst of all, she sees this as good as it is going to get.

That’s the beginning of The Good Girl, a darkly humorous movie starring Jennifer Aniston (TV’s Friends, Rock Star) as Justine, a cosmetics clerk Retail Rodeo, the equivalent of an unkempt .99 Store.

This movie is a character study that writer Mike White (Chuck & Buck) has populated with a bunch of people who have become cogs in the never ending wheel of paycheck-to-paycheck living. I wanted to shake them. All of them. How does anyone grow up wanting to become John Carrroll Lynch’s (Bubble Boy) character, “Jack Field, Your Store Manager.” That’s how he introduces himself every time he gets on the microphone to address the 15 employees in his store. The only one who seems to be alive is Cheryl (played by Zooey Deschanel—William’s sister in Almost Famous). Cheryl seems to get how vapid their lives are and does unusual things just to see if anyone is paying attention.

One day at work, Justine discovers that the “new guy,” Holden (Jake Gyllenhaal from Bubble Boy), is something of a soul mate. He is a creative, passionate young man who represents a chance for Justine to escape into a new world of emotional and sexual awakening. But when an affair quickly moves from liberation to poisonous obsession, Justine finds herself ensnared in a chaotic web of blackmail, larceny and love. Part of that web is woven by her husband’s best friend Bubba, played by Tim Blake Nelson from O Brother Where Art Thou. This guy is one sad, sad loser.

The Good Girl is definitely worth a look. It gives Aniston to spread her acting wings in a starring role in something that doesn’t involve Must See TV. Her acting isn’t the only highlight—I enjoyed the whole cast.

When you see it on the DVD rental shelf, you will have found a good movie to grab.

Hank Yuloff is an advertising type guy in Los Angeles who worked in places just like Retail Rodeo. You can imagine the flashbacks.

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