The Good Girl

30-year-old Justine is tired of her pot smoking husband, tired of her job as a cashier at the Retail Rodeo, tired of all the people around her. In short, she leads a life of quiet desperation spawned by boredom and routine. That is, until a college dropout hattie starts working at the store. Calling himself Holden, in a hard-core tribute to the hero of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, he soon befriends Justine. Furthermore, they become lovers, embarking on a juicy journey through the obsessive underworlds of sex. Director Miguel Arteta and actor/writer Mike White team up once again (their first companionship resulted in multi- awarded Chuck & Buck), bringing out brilliant performances from Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal (of cult-movie Donnie Darko, shown at last year's Stockholm International Film Festival) as well as John C. Reilly and Zooey Deschanel. Clever dialogue, recognizable, down-to-earth characters and a cinematography that perfectly captures Justine's suffocating surroundings, makes The Good Girl an odd film. Balancing between comedy, absurdity and seriousness, it may also manage to finally drain the Rachel out of Aniston, who proves to be much more than Mrs. Brad Pitt or part of the Friends all-star team. Bettina Edlund