The Good Girl

Justine ‘Teenie’ Last (Aniston) lives a dispiriting existence in a crushingly mundane small town in Texas. Every night she leaves the zombies and bible-thumpers she works with at the local discount not-so-superstore, and returns home to her dull (and some might say dullard) hubby Phil (Reilly, in his second turn as a cuckold this week after Chicago) and his constant companion Bubba (Nelson, who remarkably manages to be even more of a redneck than his handle would suggest).

Naturally, when an angst-ridden dropout (Gyllenhaal) who insists on being called Holden appears – predictably enough – from behind a copy of Catcher In The Rye, he seems like a fantastic prospect. Of course, every girl knows that when you take in such adorable stray puppies, they tend to make more of a mess than you bargained for, but apparently word hasn’t gotten around in Texas yet, and Teenie soon finds herself embroiled in a passionate tryst with a bloke whose short stories all end in a suicide. From here, things look destined to go horribly wrong, as indeed they do.

This understated, bittersweet comedy from the writer and director of Chuck & Buck is a delightfully darksome fable with superb performances from all concerned, particularly Aniston. Even in underwhelming fare such as The Object Of My Affection, Mrs. Pitt has always seemed the most likely member of the Friends gang to make a regular habit of competent acting, and here she proves her thespian worth with a sensitive turn, replete with a deadpan Badlands inspired voice-over.

Of course it helps that Teenie is a brilliantly written character – an absolute survivor capable of behaving cynically, and frequently dreadfully, who still manages to be utterly endearing thanks to her ‘more sinned against than sinning’ status in life. Basically, think Madame Bovary gone Darwinian but played for laughs – and you should have some idea where this small but often sublime movie will take you.