I'm going to speak about Jennifer Aniston for a bit

I've been sitting around a lot.
We can blame it on jet lag if you like, or exhaustion. Whatever. (Also, how do movie stars get checked into hospitals for 'exhaustion,' because I think I need to see a movie star doctor. Unless exhaustion is code for drug overdose, which I might be able to arrange.)
ANYWAY.
I watched a bunch of movies yesterday. I saw About A Boy, which I've seen before and is a good one and I'm wondering if Youngest might like, and I also watched Along Came Polly.
My head was kind of muddled by the time Along Came Polly was over but I feel the need to discuss some things.
It was so formulaic, this movie.
I can't stand Ben Stiller, I don't think Jen is a particularly great actor, although she is nice to look at, and the story was just crap.
Of course I kept watching.



It's about Rubin, a risk analyst, whose wife fools around with a scuba instructor whilst on their honeymoon.
So, my first question is: when did Hank Azaria start looking like this?



Because, the last time I saw him? He looked like this...



It's like discovering that Frances McDormand



really looks like this:



But I'll talk about her in a minute.

So Rubin goes back to the city and meets Polly.



Polly is a waitress with a very different lifestyle. She's all wacky and goofy and she has a ferret.
Rubin is a planner, a calculator - he'd never have a ferret.


This ferret is blind, or deaf, I CANNOT REMEMBER, but, mark my words - the ferret is important to the plot.
As are fart jokes.

Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Rubin's best friend - JACK BLACK.



I mean it. I know PSH is a fine actor, what with the whole Capote thing, but in this movie he stops bathing and did the best Jack Black I've seen in a while.

And look, here he is with that indie film actress who makes me nuts -



she makes my neck itch. I just learned that expression and I'm liking it.

Of course Rubin and Polly end up together and it's all just ducky.

And Alec Baldwin does a good job of playing an asshole.



So, back to Frances McDormand. I really like her very much. Much better than Jennifer, sorry Jen...



Jen always looks pretty, doesn't she?
I'm bored with the whole jilted lover/tough little trooper thing that the media paints for her.

A few weeks ago I caught more of a movie with Jennifer AND Frances.
Friends With Money.

When I first saw Friends With Money I watched about a third of it and gave up.
But this last time I watched it I liked it.
Sure the plot is shallow and weird and it has that smoky room/hazy lens thing going on, but there's something about it that grabbed me.




And this guy does a good job of playing an asshole.

Friends With Money is about three couples and their single friend, Jen, who is Olivia.
Olivia doesn't have any money and the couples are all loaded.
Each of the couples has their own level of dysfunction, which can be difficult to watch, but it has a great cast:



look! It's crazy Joan Cusack!
Actually, she's really quite sane in this movie.



There's the one who makes my neck itch.
I still don't know her name.



AND there's Frances, showing us how big something is.
I READ that Frances made the film company come to HER to shoot the last scenes she was in, in NY, because she has a contract clause that says she can only be away from her family for a certain amount of time.
So I like her.
THEN I saw this photo:



AND FELL IN LOVE WITH HER.

I loved the art direction in this movie.
FM plays a clothing designer and all through the movie I thought there was something familiar about her costumes and the clothes her character had created.



I've seen these outfits -



I've LOST BIDS ON THESE OUTFITS. (Yeah, it sort of IS the same shot twice. SUE ME.)



The clothes are all from Dosa. Which. I. Love.

Of course, in the end, Jen/Olivia falls in love with a sad man who has way more money than anyone else.
What a hoot, eh?
No?
I know, mixed feelings.



Look. They all wore black on the press junket.
What a shock.

Not a great movie. But good to look at if you don't feel like unpacking.

See?
See how I started by talking about Jennifer Aniston?
Where'd I go with THAT?