REVIEW: THE GOOD GIRL - On my way to Chicago late last Thursday night with CS contributor Eric Baker, I stopped off in Rock Falls, IL, for some fast food. It was almost closing time and the 30-something woman taking our order had the face of someone who wasn't happy with her position in life, but wasn't necessarily that unhappy either. She simply seemed indifferent. "At what point does someone just abandon their dreams and accept their role working night-in, night-out at the Rock Falls Burger King?", I asked Eric, trying hard not to be smug, as we got in the car. A few miles down the road we hit our first toll booth and I wondered, as I do every time, whether there is a more lonely and tedious job on the planet than toll booth collector. At this point I still wasn't planning to see The Good Girl during my trip to Chicago, but looking back on it now, it seems almost pre-determined. Of all the characters in Miguel Arteta's often-hilarious take on life in a small Texas town, only one, a Salinger-obsessed writer named (what else?) Holden, is still hanging onto a dream. Unfortunately, his passion and intensity are obscured by the fact that he's an immature, manic depressive, no-talent hack. Everyone else working at the fabulously-named Retail Rodeo seems blissfully ignorant of their mundane existences except Justine (Jennifer Aniston), a 30-year-old cashier with a dimwitted husband, Phil (John C. Reilly), who spends more time numbing his brain with pot than he does with her. [As an aside, Phil's lack of interest in sex with Justine ranks a close second on the Unbelievable Subplot scale to Mike McGlone cheating on Aniston in Ed Burns' terrible She's The One.] Inevitably, Justine and Holden make a connection and begin an affair that involves daily dalliances at a local motel. When her husband's best friend Bubba (Tim Blake Nelson) uncovers the relationship, Justine breaks it off, sending the unhinged Holden into a fit of fixation and heartache. I had doubts about The Good Girl from the opening shot of the Retail Rodeo, accompanied by Aniston's voice-over (which you can hear the first part of by going here and clicking on 'the story'). Voice-overs are generally abused by filmmakers attempting to add perspective and insight where it is usually lacking; add to it Aniston's not-quite-right Texas drawl, and I was contemplating a rush to the exit sign. Fortunately, her accent improves and Arteta uses the voice-over sparingly throughout the rest of the movie. What makes The Good Girl worth seeing is its laugh-out-loud, cynical screenplay and eccentric ensemble of supporting characters. Along with Reilly and Nelson, screenwriter Mike White (Chuck & Buck) is very funny as a bible-thumping security guard who tells Justine that "other than the usual stuff, his bible study group doesn't preach fire and brimstone." When she nicely explains that she likes to have her nights to herself, he shoots back with a smile, "Well, maybe you'll have your nights of eternal hellfire to yourself too." Zooey Deschanel, who played William Miller's rebellious sister in Almost Famous, almost steals the whole movie as an ill-mannered, acid-tongued cashier who gets sent to work in cosmetics after too many rude remarks over the store's intercom. It's worth the price of admission alone just to watch her cake make-up on an old lady's face while reassuring her that the look is all the rage in Paris right now -- "It's called cirque de face, which means circus of the face." But The Good Girl's mordant wit is perhaps its ultimate flaw. You can laugh at people you care about; to care about someone you are constantly laughing at -- and not necessarily with -- is quite a bit more difficult. Here it's not just the minor characters who Arteta helps us feel superior to, but the main characters as well. Holden, played with perfect Gen-Y poutiness by Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko), isn't really named Holden at all. His name is Tom; he just likes to envision himself as Holden Caulfield, fighting against the phoniness of the world. And while we admire Justine for trying to improve her life, her awakening only serves to inflict great pain on almost everyone she comes in contact with -- which would be forgivable except that, in the end, she seems to have learned nothing from her mistakes.

E-mail CinemaScoped@hotmail.com or start a discussion in the Feedback Forum