Your Friends & Neighbors
Encyclopedia
Your Friends & Neighbors is a 1998 comedy-drama film written and directed by Neil LaBute
Neil LaBute
Neil N. LaBute is an American film director, screenwriter and playwright.-Early life:LaBute was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Marian, a hospital receptionist, and Richard LaBute, a long-haul truck driver. LaBute is of French Canadian, English and Irish ancestry, and was raised in Spokane,...

 and starring Amy Brenneman
Amy Brenneman
Amy Frederica Brenneman is an American actress, perhaps best known for her roles in the television series NYPD Blue, Judging Amy and Private Practice...

, Aaron Eckhart
Aaron Eckhart
Aaron Edward Eckhart is an American film and stage actor. Born in California, he moved to England at the age of 13, when his father relocated the family. Several years later, he began his acting career by performing in school plays, before moving to Sydney, Australia, for his high school senior year...

, Catherine Keener
Catherine Keener
Catherine Ann Keener is an American actress. She has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Being John Malkovich and Capote...

, Nastassja Kinski
Nastassja Kinski
Nastassja Kinski is a German-born American-based actress who has appeared in more than 60 films. Her starring roles include her Golden Globe Award-winning portrayal of the title character in Tess and her roles in two erotic films , as well as parts in Wim Wenders' films The Wrong Move; Paris,...

, Jason Patric
Jason Patric
Jason Patric is an American film, television and stage actor. He may be best-known for his roles in the films The Lost Boys, Sleepers, Your Friends & Neighbors, Narc, The Losers and Speed 2: Cruise Control. His father was actor/playwright Jason Miller...

, and Ben Stiller
Ben Stiller
Benjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara....

 in an ensemble cast. This film was the first to be reviewed on the website Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten 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 film's credit sequences feature music by Apocalyptica
Apocalyptica
Apocalyptica is a band from Helsinki, Finland, formed in 1993. The band is composed of classically trained cellists Eicca Toppinen, Paavo Lötjönen, and Perttu Kivilaakso and drummer Mikko Sirén...

.

Plot synopsis

The movie is a frank portrayal of intertwining sexual relationships between three upper-class couples in an undisclosed location, the film specifically avoids using outside shots. Much of the film's plot involves various characters expressing sexual dissatisfaction and entering into affairs with each other, including a homosexual liaison. The characters are never named until the end credits, where they are given rhyming names such as "Mary", "Jerry" and "Terri".

Set in an unnamed Midwestern American city (hinted to be Chicago), two urban, middle-class couples deal with their unhappy relationships by lying and cheating on one another in their quest for happiness. Jerry (Ben Stiller
Ben Stiller
Benjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara....

), is a flirtatious theater instructor who is married to Terri (Catherine Keener
Catherine Keener
Catherine Ann Keener is an American actress. She has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Being John Malkovich and Capote...

), a writer who is alienated and unfulfilled with his overly verbose and aggressive love-making skills. Jerry and Terri have dinner with Mary (Amy Brenneman
Amy Brenneman
Amy Frederica Brenneman is an American actress, perhaps best known for her roles in the television series NYPD Blue, Judging Amy and Private Practice...

), a writer friend of Terri's, and Barry (Aaron Eckhart
Aaron Eckhart
Aaron Edward Eckhart is an American film and stage actor. Born in California, he moved to England at the age of 13, when his father relocated the family. Several years later, he began his acting career by performing in school plays, before moving to Sydney, Australia, for his high school senior year...

) a sad-sack business executive who is oblivious to his wife's unhappiness with him. During dinner, Mary talks about writing for a local newspaper column about bickering couples and the troubles they have, while Barry does not think that other couple problems are anyone else's concern. After dinner, the lothario Jerry secretly makes a discreet pass at Mary whom he asks out on a date. Mary, out of frustration in her unsatisfied life with Barry, accepts.

The next day, Terri, after going to a local art gallery, meets and begins a secret romance with Cheri (Nastassja Kinski
Nastassja Kinski
Nastassja Kinski is a German-born American-based actress who has appeared in more than 60 films. Her starring roles include her Golden Globe Award-winning portrayal of the title character in Tess and her roles in two erotic films , as well as parts in Wim Wenders' films The Wrong Move; Paris,...

), a lesbian art gallery worker. Terri feels satisfied with their lovemaking and enjoys the quiet of it compared with Jerry's loud and macho performance. Meanwhile, Cary (Jason Patric
Jason Patric
Jason Patric is an American film, television and stage actor. He may be best-known for his roles in the films The Lost Boys, Sleepers, Your Friends & Neighbors, Narc, The Losers and Speed 2: Cruise Control. His father was actor/playwright Jason Miller...

) is a mutual and caddish doctor friend of Barry's. He is also a devious, sexual predator who targets naïve and emotionally vulnerable young women whom he picks up, has sex with, and dumps just for the sole purpose of watching them cry. Aware of the distance between Barry and Mary, Cary persuades Barry to leave his wife for the swinging cruising lifestyle that Cary has built for himself. Barry thinks that his marriage can be saved.

Jerry and Mary's rendezvous at a local downtown hotel becomes a disaster when Jerry fails to get aroused during foreplay. As a result, Jerry takes out his frustrations on Mary, believing that she has made him impotent. Angry and offended by his outburst, Mary abruptly ends their so-called "affair", and she feels even more miserable a few days later, when Barry unwittingly takes her to the very same hotel room to rekindle their romance, because he heard Jerry talking about that room without going into specifics as to whom he had been there with. Mary realizes that Jerry had told Barry about being in the room. Barry fails to understand Mary's unhappy attitude and thinks he might somehow be responsible for it.

During a gym outing, Jerry, Barry, and Cary get together to work out and, in the privacy of the steam room, Barry tries to get them to reveal their best sexual experiences. Barry tells them that he only feels satisfied with himself, thus implying that he gets off on self gratification. Cary then delivers a chilling monologue about his best sexual experience -- forcibly sodomizing a male high school classmate at his boarding school in the locker room. Both Barry and Jerry are stunned but fascinated by Cary's sordid and perverse remembrance. When Cary tries to persuade Jerry to reveal his best sexual experience, Jerry refuses. After being goaded in the locker room, Jerry responds that his best sexual experience was with Barry's wife. He then leaves, with Barry too stunned to respond, and Cary saying "that beats my story".

After returning home from the gym, Barry confronts Mary over dinner about her affair with Jerry just as Terri accidentally finds out about Jerry's indiscretion and eventually confronts him too. Mary and Jerry are both unapologetic for their unfaithfulness and express dissatisfaction to both of their spouses. Here, Terri accidentally reveals her own lesbian romance with Cheri, but does not display any guilt for her infidelity. Jerry soon confronts Cheri at the art gallery over his wife's affair with her. Cheri also shows no remorse for her relationship with Terri, or with interfering with Jerry and Terri's troubled marriage. Cheri tells Jerry that Terri can go much better than being with a Casanova like him.

Both of the couples split up. Terri moves in with Cheri, although she finds her emotional neediness to be irritating. Jerry continues his philandering lifestyle with his female theater students. Barry becomes miserable because he is no longer able to give himself an erection during masturbation. Mary moves in with Cary after falling for his charms as does every weak-willed woman he picks up. Sometime later, when Mary tells Cary that she's pregnant and wants to keep the baby, Cary finally shows his true misanthropic and misogynist colors when he yells at her for doing this to him (considering that he refuses to use condoms because of his male ego and pride). Mary realizes that she's even more unhappy in her new relationship with the heartless Cary than she had been with her clueless husband Barry.

Note: The film is a loosely based reflection of the restoration play The Country Wife
The Country Wife
The Country Wife is a Restoration comedy written in 1675 by William Wycherley. A product of the tolerant early Restoration period, the play reflects an aristocratic and anti-Puritan ideology, and was controversial for its sexual explicitness even in its own time. The title itself contains a lewd pun...

by playwright William Wycherley
William Wycherley
William Wycherley was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for the plays The Country Wife and The Plain Dealer.-Biography:...

. In this movie, the character Jerry is seen directing a scene from this play with his students.

Cast

  • Amy Brenneman
    Amy Brenneman
    Amy Frederica Brenneman is an American actress, perhaps best known for her roles in the television series NYPD Blue, Judging Amy and Private Practice...

     as Mary
  • Aaron Eckhart
    Aaron Eckhart
    Aaron Edward Eckhart is an American film and stage actor. Born in California, he moved to England at the age of 13, when his father relocated the family. Several years later, he began his acting career by performing in school plays, before moving to Sydney, Australia, for his high school senior year...

     as Barry
  • Catherine Keener
    Catherine Keener
    Catherine Ann Keener is an American actress. She has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Being John Malkovich and Capote...

     as Terri
  • Nastassja Kinski
    Nastassja Kinski
    Nastassja Kinski is a German-born American-based actress who has appeared in more than 60 films. Her starring roles include her Golden Globe Award-winning portrayal of the title character in Tess and her roles in two erotic films , as well as parts in Wim Wenders' films The Wrong Move; Paris,...

     as Cheri
  • Jason Patric
    Jason Patric
    Jason Patric is an American film, television and stage actor. He may be best-known for his roles in the films The Lost Boys, Sleepers, Your Friends & Neighbors, Narc, The Losers and Speed 2: Cruise Control. His father was actor/playwright Jason Miller...

     as Cary
  • Ben Stiller
    Ben Stiller
    Benjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara....

     as Jerry
  • Josh Dotson as Co-worker
  • Lola Glaudini
    Lola Glaudini
    Lola Glaudini is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Elle Greenaway on the hit CBS series Criminal Minds, and for her role as Agent Deborah Ciccerone on the award winning HBO series The Sopranos....

     as Jerry's Student

Awards

Jason Patric's performance as the misogynistic
Misogyny
Misogyny is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Philogyny, meaning fondness, love or admiration towards women, is the antonym of misogyny. The term misandry is the term for men that is parallel to misogyny...

 doctor Cary earned an award for Best Supporting Actor
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor
The Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Supporting Actor is an award given by the Las Vegas Film Critics Society to honor the best supporting actor of the year.-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...

 from the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards 1998
The 2nd LVFCS Sierra Awards, honoring the best in filmmaking in 1998, were given on 18 December 1998.-Winners:*Best Picture:**Saving Private Ryan*Best Actor:**Roberto Benigni - Life Is Beautiful*Best Actress:...

.

Patric also received a Best Supporting Actor - Drama nomination from the International Press Academy
International Press Academy
The International Press Academy is a large and diverse association of professional entertainment journalists, representing both domestic and foreign markets in print, television, radio, cable and new media outlets. The academy was founded in 1996 by Mirjana Van Blaricom...

 (Satellite Awards
Satellite Awards
The Satellite Awards are an annual award given by the International Press Academy. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards.- Film :*Best Actor – Drama*Best Actor – Musical or Comedy*Best Actress – Drama...

).

Reception

The film had mostly positive reviews. It has a 77% "certified fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten 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...

.
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