Written by: Susan Granger
http://www.susangranger.com

Despite our increasingly materialistic culture, money is perhaps the last taboo subject for conversation these days, so when writer/director Nicole Holofcener ("Lovely and Amazing") tackles this thorny topic, if only on a superficial level, it's intriguing.

Living somewhere in Southern California, four friends find themselves in enormously different economic brackets. Three are middle-aged and married, one is younger and single.  Franny and Greg (Joan Cusack, Greg Germann) are extremely wealthy, self-indulgent and socially conscious. Jane and Aaron (Frances McDormand, Simon McBurney) are rich but seething with sexual tension and neurotic frustration. Christine and David (Catherine Keener, Jason Isaacs) are busy, well-paid writing partners but emotionally alienated, splitting up just as they're enlarging their house. Then there's Olivia (Jennifer Aniston), a former schoolteacher-turned-pot-smoking maid, who is so broke that she cadges cosmetics and hooks up with a sleazy personal trainer (Scott Caan). 

As the relationship story evolves, the women discuss each other, compare their lives, whine about their problems and try to find a suitable husband for Olivia. Problem is: movies about ennui tend to be boring, and Olivia is a "victim" with no self-esteem.

While it strains credulity to see Jennifer Aniston, who earned multi-millions as Rachel on "Friends," play penniless, Catherine Keener, Joan Cusack and Frances McDormand form such a strong ensemble that Aniston delivers her best performance since "The Good Girl." Since she was making this movie during the Brangelina scandal, Aniston's aimless angst and disappointed sadness take on an even greater poignancy. 

Offering trenchant observations, Nicole Holofcener cleverly captures the compelling human conflicts, often articulated with quirky humor.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Friends With Money" is a bitterly sharp, somewhat depressing 7, much like these privileged women's lives.