Friends with Money (2006): C+

Despite its focus on character above plot, Nicole Holofcener’s Friends with Money somehow fails to feature protagonists who boast more than a figurative purpose. Four girlfriends regularly meet for dinner to overtly discuss each others’ personal problems and covertly express their own neurotic hang-ups: fashionista and fag-hag Jane (Frances McDormand) no longer washes her hair because she’s wracked by mid-life depression; wealthy stay-at-home mom Franny (Joan Cusack) enjoys giving to charity and sleeping with her spouse; screenwriter Christine (Catherine Keener) is so willfully blind to her unhappiness that she’s constantly bumping into things; and pot-head Olivia (Jennifer Aniston) is an apathetic mess who’s quit her teaching gig and now cleans houses as a maid. Since Olivia is nothing more than an annoying cipher employed to reflect (non-existent) truths about those around her, Aniston’s presence primarily exacerbates the small-screen vibe cultivated by Holofcener’s sitcom-y approach to plot, humor and character construction. Intent on exploring the inescapable complications that arise when close friends exist in different economic strata, the director – whose prior Lovely and Amazing effectively depicted familial strife – instead comes up with very little to say about her central theme except that having money sometimes (but not always) makes you happy and leads to a great sex life. Well, whaddya know.