Friends with Money

Nicole Holofcener, USA, 2006
3 out of 4 stars

It’s contemplative and also very slight at the same time. What saves this film is that it is very hilarious for much of the time, and there is a certain, appreciable amount of poignancy (this seems to be the buzzword for me lately) to some of the more serious moments, at least regarding some characters’ plotlines. It is short, so some elements feel underdeveloped, and I’m not sure if the writer/director put the emphasis where it was needed, in some instances, although the subplot regarding the character who seems to be gay was actually much better than one might expect. And at some level, the whole “sorrows of the rich” angle is fundamentally diseased. This film does try to have it both ways by attempting to pose as a critique of the rich, but it doesn’t quite wash.

There is also a rather dubious twist near the end that thrusts this movie closer to “Hollywood” and farther away from the “art-house” that the Sony Pictures Classics opening logo would seem to imply. The ending itself is that classic “fade out from nothing in particular” bit that sent shockwaves through the audience, apparently hoping for a straight-up “chick flick.” I wisecracked to my friend that I could name 10 different films I’d seen this year with more ambiguous non-endings than that; probably an exaggeration, but it did crack me up that they were so aggravated by something that seemed so non-challenging to me.

Source: Sony 35mm print
21 April, 7:30 PM