Last weekend I bought the movie “The Good Girl” from the bargain bin of the local Blockbuster, thinking it would be a good no-brain-required, typical “Jennifer Aniston” romantic comedy to watch one night when we wanted to chill out.
We watched it tonight. It wasn’t a romantic comedy at all. It completely caught us off guard, and halfway through I was so disturbed by it that I nearly switched it off. I couldn’t though - it sucked me in, chewed me up, and spat me out.
The story of the movie is like some kind of weird train wreck happening in slow motion among a group of very “normal” people - and you are a fly on the wall, watching each of the characters being twisted and churned up by the events that happen.
Jennifer Aniston is amazing in this movie. At the start I thought “here we go, it’s Rachel in a different set of clothes” (as I have thought in some of her other movies), but I was very wrong indeed. For the first time in ages I found myself guessing wrong about what she was going to do next - and guessed wrong all the way through the story.
It’s an unsettling movie - perhaps even upsetting in places. Some people have described it as a dark comedy, and I can sort of understand that, but to somebody like me (who doesn’t understand people who do “wrong”), it was like I said - unsettling. You know stuff that happens in this movie goes on, but you perhaps shield yourself in a protective bubble and pretend it doesn’t… it’s how you get through each day and try to keep fairly happy.
In a way, the movie tapped into my weaknesses - I worry about other people all the time, and because of that I found myself being torn up by the events of the story as they unfolded.
If you do watch this movie, don’t expect to like it - but don’t expect to hate it either. It doesn’t fit into either pigeon hole…