THE GOOD GIRL
"...one of the most pleasant surprises of this long, hot, harrowing
summer... Ms. Aniston should be a shoo-in for an Oscar...Working with
emotionally dangerous material, Mr. Arteta sails through without undue
malice, reminding me of the late, great Rainer Werner Fassbinder...it
suddenly seems possible to imagine a steady stream of low-budget,
nuanced and unyieldingly intelligent movies to counterbalance the
bottom-line mania of the new baby moguls with their infernal franchise
filmmaking...don't miss 'The Good Girl.'" --Andrew
Sarris, The New York Observer
"... it's like a Bette Davis melodrama directed by Luis BuO`uel: ambition
and heartache with a poisonous undercurrent of anti-bourgeois absurdity.
And it's a winner, helped along by a no-frills performance by Jennifer
Aniston as the soul-sick cashier Justine... for Mr. Arteta, Ms. Aniston's
comic authority is a sure laugh-getter. The persuasive results are
a ripe, daffy comedy about the turbulent mixture of depression and
jealousy...'The Good Girl' is like a neurotically charged post-millennial
take on the trailer-park comedies that Jonathan Demme once claimed
for himself." --Elvis Mitchell, The
New York Times
"...director Miguel Arteta and screenwriter Mike White have crafted
a comedy of winning delicacy and heart. It's a smooth move for them
and for Aniston." --Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment
Weekly
"...the 'Friends' star announces herself as a true big-screen talent,
channeling despair, hope, confusion and wry humor as the narrative
oscillates wildly between Greek tragedy and acrid comedy...Of course
Aniston can do funny, although the kind of deadpan humor White and
Arteta favor is far removed from sitcom land. But it's her ability
to be sympathetic even when engaged in morally questionable, sometimes
despicable acts that gives life to this unpredictable, quietly eccentric
indie." --Megan Turner, The New York
Post
"I almost feel like I'm being pissy for not liking it more than I
do...Aniston, in an unlikely but encouraging turn of events, seems
to be parlaying sitcom stardom into a serious and unpredictable film-acting
career...There's a great deal to admire about it, even beyond Aniston,
and even when it goes awry it never becomes trivial or cynical...In
their depiction of Justine and her world, Arteta and White are trying
to balance savage satire with the grinding tragedy of everyday life;
it's a difficult blend at best and it probably wouldn't work at all
if they didn't treat their star with such evident affection." --Andrew
O'Hehir, Salon.com
"... one of the year's best films...This film, which is about how
the relentless dullness of the ordinary can grind a person down, has
a corrosive, comically satirical tone yet never condescends to its
people... While Arteta directs with a relaxed grace, White comes up
with one painfully funny line after another, some laugh-out-loud funny,
others more ironic or reflective...As long as films like 'The Good
Girl' can get made, there remains hope for an original and distinctive
American cinema." --Kevin Thomas,
The Los Angeles Times
"'The Good Girl' is at once romantic and snide...a droll, well-acted,
character-driven comedy with unexpected deposits of feeling...'The
Good Girl,' no less than 'Chuck & Buck,' is ultimately the story of
a mad passion. Almost behind its own back, the story of Justine's
reckless affair becomes an all-American tale of crime, violence, blackmail,
obsession, and betrayal." --J.
Hoberman, The Village Voice
"The amazing thing about this movie is how Arteta, with a skillfully
perverse script by his regular collaborator, Mike White, keeps the
audience off-balance and ready to laugh, despite the serious consequences
of Justine's actions...She is a dangerous loser, but Aniston infuses
her with an interior sweetness that makes her seem a victim of her
environment and of her own confusion. There are scenes where Justine
is having to make crucial moral decisions, and through Aniston's eyes,
we can see the misaligned wheels trying to engage." --Jack
Mathews, The New York Daily News
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