The Good Girl is a 2002
black comedyA black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
-
drama filmA drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by
Miguel ArtetaMiguel Arteta is a Puerto Rican director of film and television, known for his independent film Chuck & Buck , for which he received the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award.-Early life:...
from a script by Mike White, and stars
Jennifer AnistonJennifer Joanna Aniston is an American actress, film director, and producer, best known for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends, a role which earned her an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.Aniston has also enjoyed a successful film career,...
,
Jake GyllenhaalJacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal is an American actor. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at age ten...
and
John C. ReillyJohn Christopher Reilly, Jr. is an American film and theater actor, singer, and comedian. Debuting in Casualties of War in 1989, he is one of several actors whose careers were launched by Brian De Palma. To date, he has appeared in more than fifty films, including three separate films in 2002...
.
Plot
The film starts with narration about the life of Justine Last (
Jennifer AnistonJennifer Joanna Aniston is an American actress, film director, and producer, best known for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends, a role which earned her an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.Aniston has also enjoyed a successful film career,...
), a sad and lonely 30-year-old woman living in a dusty
TexasTexas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
town in the middle of nowhere. She works at the local Retail Rodeo (a downscale
parodyA parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of
Wal-MartWal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
), with Cheryl (
Zooey DeschanelZooey Claire Deschanel is an American actress, musician, and singer-songwriter. In 1999, Deschanel made her film debut in Mumford, followed by her breakout role as young protagonist William Miller's troubled older sister Anita in Cameron Crowe's 2000 semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous...
), a cynical young girl who inserts subliminal profanities in announcements to the sleepwalking customers; Gwen (
Deborah RushDeborah Rush is an American actress.Rush has worked in television, film and on Broadway. In 1984, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for Michael Frayn's comedy Noises Off. She also acted in Stephen Adly Guirgis' The Last Days of Judas Iscariot...
), the overly peppy, older woman who works with Justine in the cosmetics department; and Corny (Mike White), the religion-obsessed security guard. Justine's home life is no better. She returns home every night to her dim-witted husband Phil (
John C. ReillyJohn Christopher Reilly, Jr. is an American film and theater actor, singer, and comedian. Debuting in Casualties of War in 1989, he is one of several actors whose careers were launched by Brian De Palma. To date, he has appeared in more than fifty films, including three separate films in 2002...
), a house painter who spends more time
getting highCannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
and drinking on the couch with his best friend Bubba (
Tim Blake NelsonTim Blake Nelson is an American director, writer, singer, and actor.-Early life:Nelson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Ruth Kaiser Nelson, who is a noted social activist and philanthropist in Tulsa, and a geologist father...
) than doing any work. Justine's life is mundane, and while she plans to have a baby with Phil to improve things, she feels trapped, and there seems to be no sign of escape. All this changes when, one day, a new, young cashier named Thomas "Holden" Worther (
Jake GyllenhaalJacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal is an American actor. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at age ten...
) starts working at the Retail Rodeo. Holden keeps to himself and always has his nose in a copy of
The Catcher in the RyeThe Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. Originally published for adults, it has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes of teenage confusion, angst, alienation, language, and rebellion. It has been translated into almost all of the world's major...
claiming that his own life parallels that of
Holden CaulfieldHolden Caulfield is the 16-to-17 years old protagonist of author J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. He is universally recognized for his resistance to growing older and desire to protect childhood innocence...
. Justine and Holden start spending a lot of time together, having lunch every day and even hanging out after work. He and Justine slowly become friends and she realizes that they are the same: He hates the world as much as she does.
One day, Holden does not show up for work, but sends a letter to Justine, proclaiming his love for her telling her that if she does not meet him at 5 p.m. that day, he will never see her again. Justine plans to go, but suddenly Gwen feels unwell at work and needs to be taken to the hospital. Justine is obliged to drive her there, but abandons her at the entrance and races to meet up with Holden. He meets her, and they agree to have a relationship, proceeding to a
motelA motor hotel, or motel for short, is a hotel designed for motorists, and usually has a parking area for motor vehicles...
where they have passionate sex. Gwen is diagnosed with food poisoning, and dies a few days later. Over the next several days, Justine begins to feel more alive than she has in a long time. She and Holden continue their relationship, keeping it secret from their co-workers, Phil, and Holden's parents, meeting at the motel for sex. Justine narrowly avoids exposure on several occasions, as when she almost runs into the motel manager at a church with Phil. Eventually, Corny sees the two kissing on the security camera and confronts her, but ultimately agrees to stay silent. Things get more complicated when Bubba discovers and monitors the affair, then arranges to have Justine meet him at his own house and reveals what he has learned. Bubba blackmails Justine, saying that if she doesn't have sex with him, he will be forced to tell Phil. Justine reluctantly allows this, though while they are having sex, Holden is seen to be watching them. Later, a drunken Holden confronts Justine after work, calling her a whore for betraying him by having sex with Bubba. The affair quickly moves from liberation to poisonous obsession as she begins to feel Holden is unstable, obsessive, and too immature.
Several days later, Justine feels stomach cramps and her breasts begin swelling, and concludes she may be pregnant. When Holden meets with Justine after work, they drive past the same fruit stand that sold parasitic fruit to Gwen, which was the cause of her fatal food poisoning. Realizing how disturbed Holden is, Justine decides she needs to rid herself of Holden if she ever wants to go straight. She buys him the parasite-infested blackberries, but ultimately is unable to bring herself to complete her plan, and throws away the fruit as he is eating them. Justine's pregnancy test comes back positive, leaving Phil ecstatic. Justine realizes it is not Phil's child, but Holden's. Holden, wanting to convince Justine to begin a new life on the road together, robs the Retail Rodeo safe of $15,000. After questioning Justine finds him outside the store and they drive off. During their car ride Justine reveals she is pregnant making Holden want to live with her even more. He happily gives her "The story of her life" a book inspired by her. Having gone home Justine meets Phil, Bubba and Bubba's girlfriend. Phil then receives the result of an earlier sperm test and learns that he has become sterile due to his many years of taking narcotics. Justine manipulates him into believing the sperm test was wrong, but Phil finds charges for the motel on their credit card bill and figures out that Justine has been having an affair. He breaks down and asks if the child is his. Justine lies and tells him it is. Then, on the run from the police, Holden arranges with Justine to meet at the motel and leave town. At one point, Justine is at a traffic light, where she must make a choice: live life as a fugitive with Holden, or stay in her mundane one with Phil. Justine chooses to stay, and alerts the police to Holden's location. Surrounded and not wanting to be arrested, Holden commits
suicideSuicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
.
The movie ends with Justine reading the short story that Holden had written about her. She understands that she was using Holden as a means to escape her mundane life. She finally realizes that no one can escape reality or from the consequences of one's actions, and that any attempt to do so breeds further consequences. She and Phil reconcile and welcome the birth of a daughter. In the DVD release, Justine narrates that she chooses Holden, and they run away together to live in the woods "never to be heard from again" as she and Holden sit together by a lake.
Cast
- Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Joanna Aniston is an American actress, film director, and producer, best known for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends, a role which earned her an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.Aniston has also enjoyed a successful film career,...
as Justine Last
- Jake Gyllenhaal
Jacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal is an American actor. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at age ten...
as Thomas "HoldenHolden Caulfield is the 16-to-17 years old protagonist of author J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. He is universally recognized for his resistance to growing older and desire to protect childhood innocence...
" Worther
- John C. Reilly
John Christopher Reilly, Jr. is an American film and theater actor, singer, and comedian. Debuting in Casualties of War in 1989, he is one of several actors whose careers were launched by Brian De Palma. To date, he has appeared in more than fifty films, including three separate films in 2002...
as Phil Last
- John Carroll Lynch
John Carroll Lynch is an American actor, known for his role as Drew Carey's cross-dressing brother on The Drew Carey Show, and for his role as Norm, the unassuming husband of Margie Gunderson in Fargo....
as Jack Field
- Tim Blake Nelson
Tim Blake Nelson is an American director, writer, singer, and actor.-Early life:Nelson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Ruth Kaiser Nelson, who is a noted social activist and philanthropist in Tulsa, and a geologist father...
as Bubba
- Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Claire Deschanel is an American actress, musician, and singer-songwriter. In 1999, Deschanel made her film debut in Mumford, followed by her breakout role as young protagonist William Miller's troubled older sister Anita in Cameron Crowe's 2000 semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous...
as Cheryl
- Mike White as Corny
- Deborah Rush
Deborah Rush is an American actress.Rush has worked in television, film and on Broadway. In 1984, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for Michael Frayn's comedy Noises Off. She also acted in Stephen Adly Guirgis' The Last Days of Judas Iscariot...
as Gwen Jackson
- Aimee Garcia as Nurse
Critical reception
The film was well received by critics, earning an 82% "fresh" rating on the film review site
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. The consensus for the film was, "As Justine, Aniston proves she can successfully act outside her longtime
FriendsFriends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
role."
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film 3 and a half stars and also praised Aniston's performance, and saying
The Good Girl is an "independent film of satiric fire and emotional turmoil".