Wonderfully Acted Characterizations Steal the Show

Friends With Money (2006) - dir. Nicole Holofcener - 4 stars

Review: Friends with Money is full of wry, sharp dialogue between four women who are equally neurotic, no matter how much money they have. They all seem like they have identified their passions in life, found the love of their lives, and even have had time to help out the poor and the homeless through charity events, but it's all a show.

One of the women doesn't realize that she is not helping her closest friends financially even though she feels self-righteous for giving $2,000,000 to charity, whereas one of them takes years to realize that her safe-haven marriage is actually not working. The third gal completely gives up on life, because she doesn't see what to look for for the rest of her life. She finds comfort in sarcasm and a bad temperament: Why wash your hair when it's inevitable that it'll get dirty again? It's denial and lack of motivation at its utmost strength, even though these characters are pretty well-versed and outspoken. Only one of them, Olivia-the poor friend, recognizes her limitations and accepts the fact that she hasn't found her calling in life yet. Even though she is a step ahead of the others, she is held back by an affair she recently had, which glues her to her current state, disabling her to make any move or change. The others respond with pity to her self-acceptance; they just feel bad for her, but do nothing much to help her. Slowly, these four women realize their short-comings and through accepting their neurosis with their partners' and each other's help, they toast to a more meaningful life. At the end, they all look like they were the prettiest in the room.

Holofcener's latest does not contain a novel concept , but is written well, has amazingly well-rounded characters and is cast brilliantly. It is a very realistic look at modern relationships and how the money revolution hasn't really changed our most basic needs, wants and desires. What am I doing here? What is my purpose in life? Why should I keep going? We all want the answers to these questions, and money can't help us answer them; it can only help us shrug them off. Holofcener reminds us that among our busy schedules, we might forget that these questions are what make us human.