Reviewed by Tom Daley

     The advertisements for The Good Girl tout it as a comedy. On the surface it is, but if you make the assumption that this Jennifer Aniston movie is a ninety-minute episode of Friends, you will be greatly surprised. The opening sequence lets you know you are in for something different. There is no pop music opening playing over a selection of hand-held jump cuts to introduce the movie. Instead, you get a black screen with white block letter credits and a country guitar twang. If you are looking for a sitcom, check out My Big Fat Greek Wedding instead.

     Justine Last (Aniston) is a 30-year-old salesperson working at the Retail Rodeo in a small Texas town. Her husband Phil (John C. Reilly) is a housepainter and pot smoker. He and his business partner Bubba (Tim Blake Nelson) spend their days hoping for rain so that they can indulge in their favorite pastime. A result of Phil’s habit is a questionable sperm count, which is undermining Justine's wish of having a family. The majority of the couple's time together seems to be spent in front of the television or in bed with Phil sleeping and Justine wide awake pondering her place in life.

     The Retail Rodeo doesn't provide Justine with much hope either. She is surrounded by a collection of one-dimensional colleagues. There is Cheryl (Zooey Deschanel), the teen-age girl with a penchant for clever wise ass comments over the store intercom, Gwen (Deborah Rush), the harmless older woman at the cosmetics counter, and Corny (Mike White), the Bible thumping security guard. Justine finds one person that piques her curiosity. Holden Worther (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a 22-year-old cashier that is in going through his own identity crisis. His given name is Tom, but Holden is what he calls himself, after J.D. Salinger's Holden Caufield. He identifies himself as a writer and we discover that he lives with his parents after being unable to stay in college as a result of alcohol binging and underachieving.

     Justine finds Holden an interesting diversion from the other Retail Rodeo posse. He finds Justine to be the soul mate for which he has longed. After exposing his soul to Justine by sharing his writing, Holden wants to share his passion as well. After some initial resistance, Justine finds herself sharing a bed with Holden. Their trysts take them to the local motel and inside the Retail Rodeo stockroom. Justine now must deal with the internal conflict of having a loving yet unexciting husband at home and a passionate yet mentally unstable younger lover.

     Infidelity carries a price and Justine pays it. A conflicted Justine rushes Gwen off to the hospital with a stomach ailment and unceremoniously dumps her at the door so she can meet Holden. This turns to further anguish upon hearing of Gwen's surprise death. Bubba discovers Justine and Holden at the motel, and he later blackmails Justine into sleeping with him. Finally Phil discovers the affair through the motel charges on the credit card bill.

     Clearly this is a story seen through Justine's eyes, and the movie succeeds through Miguel Arteta's expert direction. The viewer experiences the drawn out pace of Justine's world. Arteta edits the scenes together with a beat or two extra to lengthen the action just enough to make the viewer just as uncomfortable in Justine's skin as she is. The camera lingers on her conversation partner's responses, waiting just long enough to make the viewer feel the lifelessness of her world. Tracking shots start or end with the subject out of frame, as if to suggest Justine's mind wandering away from the action in her life. The one-dimensional personalities of the characters are created through Justine's eye. This is the source of much of the humor. It is truly evident in Bubba's confrontation with Justine over her affair, which is the funniest scene in the picture. Bubba's confession of his love for Justine isn't ultimately told through dialogue, but through Justine's own internal monologue. The complete absurdity of the confession is heightened because it is seen from Justine's point of view. The actualization of their sexual encounter is the topper, as we are left to focus on her unbelieving expression as Bubba goes at it with all the excitement of a kid on Christmas morning.

     Arteta's direction would all be for naught if Aniston didn't deliver a spectacular performance. The film clearly rests on her shoulders. Aniston appears in all but a handful of scenes. Her under acting is what makes this film work. She must deliver a performance that conveys the emotional watershed of good versus bad yet not appear to be coming apart at the seams. She masterfully tiptoes that line, delivering a sincere performance that must be seen to be appreciated. Justine is no more or less smarter than the people that surround her, yet the role demands that Aniston set Justine apart from the rest. She must have an uncomplicated demeanor to match her simple appearance yet convey the emotional unrest that swings her like a pendulum. This is most evident through her comedic yet poignant struggles to rid herself of Holden while not precipitating her own self-destruction.

     Along with the final conclusion to Justine and Holden's relationship, the film delivers an answer to its most vital question. As a woman looking potentially towards motherhood, Justine asks, "Will a baby change anything?" In the last scene we see Justine with her baby. More telling, we next see the credits flash in the same white block letters over the black screen that opened the film. It is a powerful answer to the question. Things don't change. Justine is neither good nor bad, and this story is not a road that ended with one fork taken, but merely a road with more to travel.

Tom Daley has been reviewing films for friends for years.  This represents his first published work.  He owns degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Virginia.  He is 36 years old and currently splits his residence between New Jersey and New York City.