Movie Review for Good Girl, The

Summary: Justine is thirty years old and works as a discount store clerk in Texas. Deeply unhappy in her marriage to a man who is infertile because of a dope-smoking habit, Justine soon begins an affair with Holden, the store's newly hired cashier and becomes pregnant. Holden, who has serious issues of his own, steals money from the store's safe for the two of them to run away, but the plan is short-lived when it takes a tragic turn for the worse.

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By Mike McGranaghan of Aisle Seat (7/0)
            Jennifer Aniston removes her Hollywood glamour to convincingly play a drab Texas cashier teeterin...

By Josh Ralske of All Movie Guide (7/0)
            The film is very funny at times, and it takes some surprising turns, but it's also slow-paced and...

By Brian Webster of Apollo Guide (7/0)
            Jennifer Aniston bursts into serious acting prominence.

By Eleanor Ringel Gillespie of Atlanta Journal-Constitution (6/1)
            The filmmakers are playing to the Big Boys in New York and L.A. To that end, they mock the kind o...

By Marjorie Baumgarten of Austin Chronicle (7/0)
            Succeeds as a moody, evocative, and pleasing film, one that underscores its indie roots in sentim...

By Neil Smith of BBC (7/0)
            Treads a fine line between wry satire, black comedy, and vaguely unsettling melodrama.

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times (7/0)
            Aniston has at last decisively broken with her Friends image in an independent film of satiric fi...

By Michael Wilmington of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
            The movie is a dark comedy about false dreams and lost illusions -- and, thanks to a fine cast an...

By Margaret A. McGurk of Cincinnati Enquirer (7/0)
            Bleak and astringent indeed, yet suffused with almost radiant compassion for its poor, mixed-up c...

By Joshua Tyler of CinemaBlend.com (7/0)
            Sometimes the little things are worth the price of admission.

By Karina Montgomery of Cinerina (7/0)
            Reward the studio for making an intelligent film about intelligent persons in sad circumstances t...

By Mark Palermo of Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia) (7/0)
            An intimate, funny portrait of post-teenage apathy, handled with a sensitivity that rarely veers ...

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By Jeffrey M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid (7/0)
            [Aniston is] so good, she manages to overcome the occasional nuggets of preciousness and self-con...

By Harvey S. Karten of Compuserve (7/0)
            Jennifer Aniston is the essential girl next door in this down-to-earth, witty film of small town ...

By Nigam Nuggehalli of culturevulture.net (7/0)
            Wins the independent movie derby this year.

By Jeff Vice of Deseret News, Salt Lake City (7/0)
            Truth be told, this may be Aniston's best work on either the big or small screen, and it's certai...

By Geoffrey Kleinman of DVDTalk.com (7/0)
            A deep, complex look at the almost insurmountable task of finding happiness from complete discont...

By John J. Puccio of DVDTown.com (7/0)
            ...too depressing, too lacking in bite, and too slow (for) an outright recommendation.

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By Ben Kenigsberg of East Hampton Independent (7/0)
            The Good Girl never achieves a Fargo-like balance: it can’t decide whether its characters should ...

By Olly Richards of Empire Magazine (7/0)
            Aniston may not have received her much-touted Oscar nomination, but this brilliantly funny and of...

By Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly (7/0)
            The Good Girl only pretends to care about good people who sometimes do bad things. In fact, it ha...

By Eric D. Snider of EricDSnider.com (7/0)
            Adequately funny and reasonably well-executed, and nothing more.

By Adam Nayman of eye WEEKLY (7/0)
            Funny in the most squirm-inducing of ways.

By Eugene Novikov of Film Blather (7/0)
            I liked individual moments in The Good Girl, but it takes an illogical approach to its storyline.

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By Shirley Sealy of Film Journal International (7/0)
            Aniston impressively handles a wide range of emotions -- from alienation to lust to fear to resig...

By John R. McEwen of Film Quips Online (7/0)
            ...Another showcase for Aniston's considerable talent as well as another triumph for [writer] Whi...

By Jimmy O of Film Snobs (7/0)
            Is it possible that Jennifer Aniston has now out-performed and out-classed gust star Sean Penn or...

By Blake French of filmcritic.com (7/0)
            The Good Girl remains so shockingly drained of verve that it actually renders the audience into a...

By Victoria Alexander of FilmsInReview.com (7/0)
            All the characters are clinically depressed and have abandoned their slim hopes and dreams.

By Rick Groen of Globe and Mail (7/0)
            White hasn't developed characters so much as caricatures, one-dimensional buffoons that get him a...

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By Michael W. Phillips, Jr. of Goatdog's Movies (7/0)
            Idiosyncratic and highly original.

By Ross Anthony of Hollywood Report Card (7/0)
            First good, then bothersome. Excellent acting and direction.

By Duane Byrge of Hollywood Reporter (7/0)
            An absorbing, slice-of-depression life that touches nerves and rings true.

By Spence D. of IGN Movies (7/0)
            ...a turgid little melodrama which unfolds with slow, methodical pacing amidst a laconically dism...

By Steve Rhodes of Internet Reviews (7/0)
            I'd love to see Aniston receive an Oscar nomination for her performance.

By James Sanford of James Sanford on Film (7/0)
            often extremely funny -- it's like a vintage Sally Field movie reshot by some twisted minds...

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By JoBlo of JoBlo's Movie Emporium (7/0)
            Not a complete success but enchanting performances and one especially superior showing by Aniston...

By Bob Bloom of Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN) (7/0)
            You walk out of The Good Girl with mixed emotions — disapproval of Justine combined with a tinge ...

By Ella Taylor of L.A. Weekly (7/0)
            [It's] gratifying to see [Aniston] play a woman who's had it up to here with making nice, and mak...

By Robert Roten of Laramie Movie Scope (7/0)
            Not entertaining, but good writing, direction, and the performances are outstanding.

By Jon Niccum of Lawrence Journal-World (7/0)
            White usually goes beyond the surface veneer of his characters, finding a lurking humanity to tho...

By Rene Rodriguez of Miami Herald (7/0)
            Aniston's performance conclusively proves something she had only hinted at before: She's the Frie...

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By Duane Dudek of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (7/0)
            An unconvincing generalization about people the filmmakers never care enough about to understand.

By Kevin N. Laforest of Montreal Film Journal (7/0)
            A mopey, dull, American Beautyish suburbia-is-hell story.

By Ken Hanke of Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (7/0)
            In the end, The Good Girl is about the way we all delude ourselves into believing those things we...

By Frank Ochieng of Movie Eye (7/0)
            Ultimately, [Aniston's] Justine Last ends up as the poster girl for unnecessary self-pity and rel...

By Ryan Cracknell of Movie Views (7/0)
            Jennifer has left behind her Friends, the staring never ends,deep in the heart of Texas....It's n...

By Jorge Avila Andrade of Moviola (7/0)
            'Si bien no logra desarrollarse como un gran drama, tampoco es tan superficial como muchas cintas...

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By Michael Dequina of Mr. Brown's Movies (7/0)
            Aniston shows promising signs of a post-sitcom career with her convincing and understated dramati...

By Frank Swietek of One Guy's Opinion (7/0)
            A shrewd, observant ensemble comedy-drama...A little film that cannily melds edgy satire with a d...

By Mark Sells of Oregon Herald (7/0)
            Leaves me craving for the entree.

By Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' World Movie Reviews (7/0)
            What I bought into was the way Jennifer Aniston handled herself, as I found her to be very appeal...

By John Esther of Pasadena Weekly (7/0)
            Dead end until death-- 'The Good Girl,’ the bad boy and the ugly lives they lead

By Sean Burns of Philadelphia Weekly (7/0)
            ...skirts the edges of snide condescension only to then abruptly catch the viewer off-guard with ...

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By James Kendrick of Q Network Film Desk (7/0)
            There's a lot of sadness, but the film's grasp of small human truths and sense of low-key humor k...

By Linda Cook of Quad City Times (Davenport, IA) (7/0)
            Good movie. Good actress. But if you expect light romantic comedy, good gosh, will you be shocked...

By Jeet Thayil of Rediff.com (7/0)
            An unlikely black comedy where the humor is relentless, the satire is grim and the jokes are born...

By Rod Armstrong of Reel.com (7/0)
            There's some good material in their story about a retail clerk wanting more out of life, but the ...

By Laura Clifford of Reeling Reviews (7/0)
            Arteta directs one of the best ensemble casts of the year

By Robin Clifford of Reeling Reviews (7/0)
            Mike White’s deft combination of serious subject matter and dark, funny humor make “”The Good Gir...

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By James Berardinelli of ReelViews (7/0)
            An effective portrait of a life in stasis -- of the power of inertia to arrest development in a d...

By Forrest Hartman of Reno Gazette-Journal (7/0)
            The actors are offering first-rate work to a second-class script.

By Beth Jones of Roanoke Times (Virginia) (7/0)
            Aniston was brave to accept this dark role, which may win her an Oscar nomination and certainly p...

By Jack Garner of Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (7/0)
            The honesty, restraint and emotional power of Aniston's performance help overcome the film's snob...

By Peter Travers of Rolling Stone (7/0)
            A creepy, funny, steamy, oddly touching movie.

By Harry Guerin of RTE Interactive (Dublin, Ireland) (7/0)
            While disappointing, The Good Girl does give Aniston the chance to prove she can carry a film.

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By Jim Lane of Sacramento News & Review (7/0)
            Aniston is a revelation; she shows more range and depth here than in any of her previous films, a...

By Jean Lowerison of San Diego Metropolitan (7/0)
            Starts off well, but gets derailed just when it could be going somewhere.

By Mick LaSalle of San Francisco Chronicle (7/0)
            A smart, arch and rather cold-blooded comedy.

By Jim Judy of Screen It! (7/0)
            For the most part -- and especially thanks to Aniston's performance -- it works more than adequat...

By Sean Axmaker of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (7/0)
            At its best, The Good Girl is a refreshingly adult take on adultery...

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat of Spirituality and Practice (7/0)
            A funny and well-contructed black comedy where the old adage "be careful what you wish for" is gi...

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By Rob Blackwelder of SPLICEDWire (7/0)
            The Good Girl is a film in which the talent is undeniable but the results are underwhelming.

By Shannon J. Harvey of Sunday Times (Australia) (7/0)
            The Good Girl belongs to Aniston, who buries Rachel in style with a sweet, soulful, hangdog perfo...

By Rick Curnutte of TheFilmJournal.com (Ohio) (7/0)
            With the dreary, offensive The Good Girl, Arteta and White have attempted to turn their biting wi...

By Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone of TheMovieChicks.com (7/0)
            The movie loses some momentum at the end, but overall it's worth a trip to the Retail Rodeo to ch...

By Audrey Rock-Richardson of Tooele Transcript-Bulletin (Utah) (7/0)
            Aniston defines the term "bored to tears" with her portrayal of the morose "Justine."

By Ken Fox of TV Guide's Movie Guide (7/0)
            Even during the most intense moments, it's hard to shake the impression that the conspicuously bu...

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By Urban Cinefile Critics of Urban Cinefile (7/0)
            Moving, insightful and thoroughly entertaining, The Good Girl takes us to the crossroads of the h...

By J. Hoberman of Village Voice (7/0)
            A droll, well-acted, character-driven comedy with unexpected deposits of feeling.

By Vanessa Sibbald of Zap2it.com (7/0)
            The title of the film comes across like a back-handed slap to the character Mike White ("Chuck & ...

By Phil Villarreal of Arizona Daily Star (3/4) No reference
            The script, by Mike White, who also wrote “Chuck & Buck” for Arteta, adds lightness to the mood w...

By Christopher Smith of Bangor Daily News (Maine) (3/4) No reference
            Almost immediately, you sense this is going to be one of those small, carefully realized gems tha...

By Annlee Ellingson of Boxoffice Magazine (3/4) No reference
            The Good Girl is more marketable than Chuck and Buck. It is also more forgettable.

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By Alex Ramirez of Cinenganos (3/4) No reference
            ...una suburbia americana que no suele mostrarse en el cine actual, un mundo alejado del que comú...

By Justin Hartung of Citysearch (3/4) No reference
            Chuck and Buck, director Miguel Arteta and writer Mike White have crafted an insightful portrait ...

By Susan Stark of Detroit News (3/4) No reference
            Aniston maintains the character's superficially simple patina even as she communicates her churni...

By Sean O'Connell of Eclipse Magazine (3/4) No reference
            Delivers a realistic but familiar opera of forbidden courtships and wasted dreams.

By Don R. Lewis of Film Threat (3/4) No reference
            While many questions and motivations are left unanswered, overall the film wins out with its star...

By MaryAnn Johanson of Flick Filosopher (3/4) No reference
            Jennifer Aniston and Jake Gyllenhaal are electrifying.

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By Liz Braun of Jam! Movies (3/4) No reference
            The performances are uniformly good.

By Marshall Fine of Journal News (Westchester, NY) (3/4) No reference
            It's a prickly little gem of a film.

By Robert W. Butler of Kansas City Star (3/4) No reference
            By turns very dark and very funny.

By Bob Strauss of Los Angeles Daily News (3/4) No reference
            [Aniston's] approximation of a woman on a slow-drip nervous breakdown has a universal, sleepwalki...

By Kevin Thomas of Los Angeles Times (3/4) No reference
            One of the year's best films.

By Anita Schmaltz of Metro Times (Detroit, MI) (3/4) No reference
            'The Good Girl is like visiting a peculiar island...[with an] amusingly twisted script.

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By Jeff Strickler of Minneapolis Star Tribune (3/4) No reference
            Once fans recover from the shock, they'll discover that this sitcom actress has the chops to tack...

By Michael Elliott of Movie Parables (3/4) No reference
            Proof that there is life after sitcoms.

By James Rocchi of Netflix (3/4) No reference
            Jennifer Aniston shines in a sincere and funny film from the writer and director of Chuck and Buc...

By Megan Turner of New York Post (3/4) No reference
            The Friends star announces herself as a true big-screen talent, channeling despair, hope, confusi...

By John Anderson of Newsday (3/4) No reference
            You wouldn't call The Good Girl a date movie (an anti-date movie is more like it), but when it's ...

By Kim Morgan of Oregonian (3/4) No reference
            A portrait of the mundane humor and horror of everyday life, it scalds nerves you may have never ...

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By Jay Boyar of Orlando Sentinel (3/4) No reference
            It's soulful and unslick, and that's apparently just what [Aniston] has always needed to grow int...

By Steve Schneider of Orlando Weekly (3/4) No reference
            Enjoyable black-comic romp.

By Joe Baltake of Sacramento Bee (3/4) No reference
            A sad, superior human comedy played out on the back roads of life.

By David Elliott of San Diego Union-Tribune (3/4) No reference
            Justine's smartness reeks of self-loathing and moral vacancy. Is feminism this comatose in Texas?

By Moira MacDonald of Seattle Times (3/4) No reference
            A fine cast can't quite rise above a story without enough heart.

By Laura Kelly of South Florida Sun-Sentinel (3/4) No reference
            This film has plenty of bad attitude for sale, but the black humor only delivers sporadically on ...

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) of St. Paul Pioneer Press (3/4) No reference
            These people have funny/awful lives (as opposed to funny/upbeat), and they could seem like object...

By Paul Salfen of Supercala.com (3/4) No reference
            A very well done character-driven tragic comedy. Aniston shines!

By Dustin Putman of TheMovieBoy.com (3/4) No reference
            [Jennifer Aniston's] exquisitely modulated and heartbreakingly understated performance is a revel...

By Peter Howell of Toronto Star (3/4) No reference
            It's a more believable scenario for infidelity than most such movies, and Aniston gives her all t...

By Josef Braun of Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada) (3/4) No reference
            Something in this film sticks to you more than you think it will while you’re watching it. And I ...

By Stephen Hunter of Washington Post (3/4) No reference
            It's tough, astringent, darkly funny and... well, it's also generic, untidy, condescending and mi...

                         Reviews of Good Girl, The
By Jeffrey Chen of Window to the Movies (3/4) No reference
            Wraps itself in the guise of a dark and quirky comedy, but it isn't as quirky as it thinks it is ...

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