2002, R, 93 minutes

In the opening minutes of The Good Girl, Jennifer Aniston provides a narrative introduction about her character's life, delivered in a twangy, country-style voice. I must admit, this had me worried... have too many episodes of Friends conditioned me to not accept her as anything other than a nicely dressed city girl? Soon after, we see her character working in a big inventory store, pretty much summing up her pointless, boring life in a nothing town, and the stark contrast between Aniston's glamorous Hollywood life (as it is perceived) and her role in this film is tough to get past.

The truth is, as long as you aren't too stubborn about it, this film does make it possible to accept Mrs. Pitt in the role, thanks mainly to some terrific acting from a woman who I had previously believed had little talent beyond television demands. Once again stuck in the part of the "husband with an unhappy and depressed wife" is the always good John C. Reilly, whose natural likeability turns out to be quite important in order for the story to be convincing.

You see, aside from the fact that his character goes to work everyday and at least makes a living, he's pretty much a deadbeat that likes to just sit around the house with his best buddy (Tim Blake Nelson) and get high. So when his wife meets and falls in love with a young man at work who is also dissatisfied by a meaningless life, the question at first is why doesn't she simply runaway with him and leave her husband? Over time, as the story fleshes out each character, the answer becomes quite clear. Her husband may not be a genius or particularly enviable, but he does do little things for her like fix the television and at least he's stable.

A bit slow at times but never completely boring, what makes The Good Girl worth watching are the unpredictable characters and the story's overall lack of judgment. What we are exposed to is a truly unhappy woman who looks for something more but comes to realize that maybe she doesn't actually want any of those other things. But on the other hand, maybe she doesn't know what she wants and will be perpetually stuck in a state of desire without any goals to help her achieve whatever it is she wants. Aniston's subtle performance conveys this sense of indecision and depressed complacency, which oddly reminded me of Benicio Del Toro's mysterious police officer in Traffic. I never really had any idea what she would do and what she was thinking, which is the main reason I kept watching.

Like its protagonist, The Good Girl doesn't aspire for much, but makes the best out of what it has to offer. I recommend it to fans of character-driven films, although I must warn that if you won't be able to get past the fact that a woman as beautiful and charismatic as Jennifer Aniston is stuck in some dead-end life, then you won't be able to appreciate the acting and might as well not even bother.