Friends with Money (2006)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	2006
Running Time	83:59 (Case: 88)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Nicole Holofcener
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Catherine Keener Jason Isaacs Timm Sharp Joan Cusack Greg Germann Hailey Noelle Johnson
Case	?
RPI	$36.95	Music	Rickie Lee Jones Craig Richey Deb Talan

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Have you ever watched a film which, although it's well acted and reasonably well put together, just leaves you feeling quite ambivalent? This one is one of those for me.

    Friends With Money is a relationship drama involving the lives of four friends. All are women of varying ages. The four friends are:

• Olivia (Jennifer Aniston ) - She is an ex-teacher who quit due to stress and now wanders aimlessly through life cleaning people's houses, smoking pot and being a doormat for her boyfriend.
• Franny (Joan Cusack) - Rich & happily married with a child.
• Christine (Catherine Keener) - A writer, unhappily married to David (Jason Isaacs), who is also a writer. They are in the process of extending their house and working together on a writing project which is causing them both stress.
• Jane (Frances McDormand) - A depressed clothing designer who has one child. She is married to Erin, who makes and sells organic bath products. Everyone thinks he is secretly gay.

    The other three are very concerned about Olivia, who is still hung up on her ex-boyfriend. They think her life is going nowhere and they try to help her. Franny sets her up with her personal trainer, Mike and they start going out.

    The acting here is mostly of high quality as you would expect from most of this cast. Aniston does not disgrace herself either. The problem to my mind is that the plot really doesn't go anywhere. There is not enough resolution of issues and when the end comes it is abrupt and you are left to ponder what the character arc might have been for at least two of the four friends. I generally enjoy films which leave some details to the imagination, but this one leaves at lot more than it should, making you wonder if you missed something. Also, the stuff which did happen seemed somewhat unbelievable. There were some comedic elements which raised some chuckles.

    Basically, this is an actors film which I really can't recommend. I suppose I could be accused of not understanding this film as it centers on relationships between women, however, my wife was also very under whelmed by this film.

Video

    The video quality is very good.

    The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced, which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was fairly sharp and clear, but nothing overly special. There was no evidence of low level noise. There was some very light grain throughout.

    The colour was very good with no major issues to report.

    The only artefact I noticed was some minor aliasing here and there.

    There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired which were clear, easy to read and positioned on screen under the speaker.

    This is a single layered disc.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is very good.

    This DVD contains two audio options; an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s and an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The score of this movie is by Craig Richey and included some nice, moody piano. There were also songs by Rickie Lee Jones, which fans would enjoy.

    The surround speakers added some mild atmosphere but precious little else.

    The subwoofer was not used to any great effect.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    None

Menu

    The menu was still and silent.

     This Region 4 version of this movie (when compared to Region 1) misses out on;

• French 5.1 Soundtrack
• Making of Featurette
• Sundance Featurette
• Los Angeles Premiere Featurette
• Commentary by Writer/Director Nicole Holofcener and Producer Anthony Bregman
  

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• Nothing

    Region 1 is the pick here. I have a sneaking suspicion that this may be a rental disc, with a retail version coming later.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall