Jennifer Aniston, since the end of the wonderful Friends, has enjoyed more Hollywood success as opposed to the rest of the sitcom cast, with roles in such films as Horrible Bosses and (sadly) Adam Sandler's despicably unfunny Just Go With It. However, this film was completed while she was still on the beloved series but was completely overlooked, both by the Academy and the mainstream audiences. I see it to be a wondrous masterpiece akin to Kevin Spacey's American Beauty, sharing the satirical anger of the Oscar-winning 1999 drama. The premise goes that the bored Texan 30 year old Justine is living each day repetitively, coming back every night to his stupid stoner husband Phil (John C. Reilly), and his similarly stupid friend Bubba. Her life, however, is changed when a 22 year old outcast who refers to himself as Holden starts work at Justine's shopping centre (Jake Gyllenhaal). He is charmingly weird and reads The Catcher In The Rye like it's his manual through life. When he offers Justine the chance to run away together, she must make a choice: stay with her dull Texan life or life a life on the road? Gyllenhaal bounces off Aniston perfectly in the quieter scenes while Reilly gets enough screen time for the impact of his pitch perfect timing to sink in. Great. 4/5
Teo
No comments:
Post a Comment