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Good Girl, The
Fox Searchlight Pictures


5.5

based on 35 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 45 votes
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Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for sexuality, some language and drug content

Starring Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal, John C. Reilly, Tim Blake Nelson, Zooey Deschanel, Mike White, Deborah Rush, and John Carroll Lynch

A frustrated young woman (Aniston) begins an affair with a young co-worker (Gyllenhaal) who represents a chance for her to escape into a new world of emotional and sexual awakening. But when the affair quickly moves from liberation to poisonous obsession, she finds herself ensnared in a chaotic web of blackmail, larceny and love. (Fox Searchlight)

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Mike White
DIRECTED BY:	Miguel Arteta
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 7, 2003 Video: January 7, 2003 Theatrical: August 7, 2002
RUNNING TIME:	93 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Aniston and Reilly give the best of many excellent performances. A few plotty scenes aside, this quietly directed drama paints a sensitive, sympathetic portrait of modern malaise, and has a smart sense of humor as a bonus.

100

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

The extraordinary quality of White's script and Arteta's direction lifts the meticulously cast actors to the height of their abilities. "Friends" star Aniston digs deep but is never showy. Reilly reveals the tenderness, vulnerability and hidden depth that can lurk within a slob, and Nelson has some of the film's most outrageously funny and inspired moments.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

A slow burn. A portrait of the mundane humor and horror of everyday life, it scalds nerves you may have never thought existed. And yet the film is funny, almost hilariously at times.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Aniston delivers an utterly un-Rachel-like performance. It's neurosis-free and unmannered, by turns funny, sad and profound.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

There's more to everyone here than we're initially led to think. The Good Girl is like a neurotically charged post-millennial take on the trailer-park comedies that Jonathan Demme once claimed for himself.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Doesn't have the daring lunacy of "Chuck and Buck," the previous collaboration by director Miguel Arteta and writer Mike White. Yet it gets closer to the troubled, lonely soul of its main character.

USA Today Claudia Puig

A sharp-tongued, subtly nuanced tragicomedy starring Jennifer Aniston, who shows her depth as a serious actress in this dark tale.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

It's a deft sleight-of-story Aniston, White and Arteta pull off, giving us a character who seems more than she is, but is really less than she appears.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Jennifer Aniston has at last decisively broken with her "Friends" image in an independent film of satiric fire and emotional turmoil. It will no longer be possible to consider her in the same way.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

A comedy as black as the asphalt desert of a mall parking lot.

Variety David Rooney

This one comes up short in terms of visual flair. But it delivers amusingly observed characters, consistent laughs underscored by the poignancy of unfulfilled existences and winning performances from a terrific cast captained by Jennifer Aniston.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Like "Chuck & Buck," The Good Girl is a droll, well-acted, character-driven comedy with unexpected deposits of feeling.

New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf

Arteta targets Middle American ennui with wit, compassion and no shortage of ornery malaise.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Succeeds as a moody, evocative, and pleasing film, one that underscores its indie roots in sentiment as well as style

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

There's a shallowness about The Good Girl that can't always be excused as an accurate portrayal of a shallow milieu -- in the end, just like Justine, it's not as good as it could have been.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A smart, arch and rather cold-blooded comedy.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

There's humor in it, and sadness, and an acid-tinged humor that is miles away from the branded levity of "Friends." More power to Aniston for feeling the need to try something different, and then doing it -- well.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

In Aniston's previous film roles, the "Friends" star has made little impression, but under the direction of the gifted young Arteta, she's certainly grown to fill the big screen here, and looks ready to leap from TV to film.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Offers nothing more spectacular than a character study. And, although The Good Girl's protagonist may be trapped by routine, that's one claim that can never be made about the movie.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Never crosses over into meanness, and even the most satirical character has a moment of empathy.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It's tough, astringent, darkly funny and . . . well, it's also generic, untidy, condescending and mild of impact rather than stunning.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Aniston plays her depressed character with enough conviction to guarantee that practically every scene will be stolen out from under her by minor characters, among them a pricelessly funny Zooey Deschanel as a Retail Rodeo employee who vents her rage and frustration on the customers.

Chicago Reader Bill Stamets

This is hardly Flaubert, but it is a fairly beguiling look at moral calculation.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

At its best, The Good Girl is a refreshingly adult take on adultery, where the dark humor and offbeat fringe characters don't get in the way of the consequences or the quiet declarations of devotion slipped between the words.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Despite Aniston's hard work, Good Girl could be better.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Even during the most intense moments, it's hard to shake the impression that the conspicuously buff-and-polished Justine is only visiting this drab world, her miserable life an interesting career move.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

There are times when The Good Girl is so low-key it damn near flatlines. Luckily, White creates compelling characters with a few deft brush strokes. The actors fill in the rest.

Time Richard Schickel

What makes The Good Girl worthwhile is its performances. All the actors play their entrapment with a weirdly convicted blankness. That's especially true of Aniston.

Slate David Edelstein

The movie gets funnier and less obvious as it goes along, and Zooey Deschanel is a hoot as a disdainfully bored co-worker who ritually insults the zombie chain-store shoppers -- but what is The Good Girl saying, exactly?

Film Threat Don R. Lewis

While many questions and motivations are left unanswered, overall the film wins out with it's stark truths and slightly twisted pay off's along the way.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Never quite establishes its own identity, and when you remember it in two years it's likely to be that movie you saw that you kind of liked with that girl in it, what's her name, from TV.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Only pretends to care about good people who sometimes do bad things. In fact, it hasn't got time for the pain.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The Good Girl isn't really the title of this movie at all. Instead, it's now widely known as The Movie That Proves Jennifer Can Act.

Wall Street Journal Nancy deWolf Smith

Although The Good Girl is peppered with amusing small-town eccentrics in refreshingly original guises, it gets off to a long, slow start.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Skillfully sketches the parameters of its small-town existence but never quite fleshes out the inhabitants of those parameters. Without the well-considered humor and strongly defined characters of "Chuck," only a good cast stands between Girl and some familiar stereotypes.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.5 (out of 10) based on 45 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

bb gave it a10:
GREAT.

Carrie W. gave it an 8:
I found the acting in this movie to be its high point. Aniston has made a good break away from her Rachael role and has proven to be a more than adaptable actress. However, the real high point was Gyllenhaal's portrayal of the troubled youth which he seems great at doing, I look forward to seeing more of him in the future. The plot was decent although not groundbreaking but a worthwhile watch I feel.

scott w gave it a 5:
After watching this my first reaction was to think, what was the point of this movie? i mean it doesnt really go anywhere. To me it was like if the writer sat down one day and thought i know ill write something depressing, which is great i suppose but i cant really see any point in it. The acting in it was ok, the dialogue was ok and thats about it. The only thing that took me by surprise is the fact that this film is described as a romance, which is strange as this film is about as romantic as a car crash.

Hal W. gave it a 6:
Not too bad,but it can be slow moving at times. Pretty well acted and storyline is good with all kinds of twists and turns. Showing us all how things can quickly snowball into bigger problems.

Richard gave it an 8:
Smart and just edgy enough to forgive some of the stereotyping. As a "good girl" who manages to eat her cake and have it, too, and emerge relatively unscathed while everyone else around her feels the aftershocks, Aniston really impresses. Supporting cast is terrific, especially Deschanel and Reilly. Nelson and Gyllenhaal need to find new shticks, I think, but they still manage to imbue their typical roles with urgency and pathos. A sad, cutting, and altogether memorable film.

Phil M. A. gave it an 8:
Depression and feeling "trapped" (somewhat the same thing) can cause you to make poor decisions, especially related to how one might "escape" and feel more hopeful, and that is one point that is made subtly in this flick. For the most part, those who are criticizing the illogical and indefensible choices made by Justine should reconsider that aspect of the film. Take it from me, based on family experience I know first-hand. There are some aspects to the story that I still cannot buy into completely, but those may be nothing more than the directors' pushing the edge of the satire envelope. I agree with the comments below regarding the overly stereotyped small town characters... too convenient, in a way. So, I give this movie a 6 or 7; since its rating has been pulled down by some rather reactionary (and apparently knee-jerk "0" ratings)... here is my 8; a small compensation for some unjustified negativity in other reviews.

Valerie O. gave it a 2:
The cast of this thim film was sloppily put together and just did not seem to mesh. Aniston showed us another, deeper side of her acting but her performance alone could not save this movie. The characters are never fully developed and you don't really ever understand them, or even want to for that matter. Bad ending, bad movie.

Good Girl, The Fox Searchlight Pictures

Good Girl, The
Fox Searchlight Pictures