The Good Girl

I'd like to say a few words about the 2002 drama romance movie #thegoodgirl, by Miguel Arteta, written by Mike Watt, who also has a role in the film. Of course spoilers will follow so..tread lightly

The film carries a sweet, nostalgic aura of the early 00's, softened by the film's likable score, and features a notable cast (Jennifer Aniston with occasional pals, early raw Jake Gyllenhaal and Zooey Deschanel, John C. Reilly being John C Reilly ).

The case is summarized as follows: in a small town in Texas, where nothing shocking happens, we meet Justine (Jennifer Aniston) who seems to be on the verge of depression, trapped in a meaningless job where she does not like anyone and in a failed marriage which arose rather early and without much thought. We watch several snippets of her life, which follows the pattern of home-work, work-home. When she returns to the comfort of family (NOT), her husband (John C. Reilly) is waiting for her, a spider on the sofa where he usually "sucks like lizards" (insert Chios meme) with his bestie (Tim Blake Nelson). The two of them paint houses and masturbate in their spare time, not necessarily in that order.

At some point, from t unbearable routine, Justine is pulled out by the arrival of a new employee, young Tom (Jake Gyllenhaal) who calls himself Holden so he doesn't exist no way to get confused and ignore the fact that he identifies with the hero of his favorite novel "The Catcher in the Rye" as equally troubled and "problematic" (alcohol and substance abuse).
Holden initially piques Justin's interest as it seems they share the same distaste for both their work environment and their family life as the rest of the world . The flawless beauty and brooding innocence of his youth contrasted with her sinking marriage quickly lead to an intense love affair developing between them.

Things get complicated, however, as at some point Jennifer discovers that her parallel and illegal relationship will hardly remain hidden, in a small town, even from her sweet, but naive, to the point of stupidity, husband.
But the most important thing is that he discovers, the hard way, that when one is not happy with the way of his life, this is probably not corrected by making new relationships.

I was personally disappointed by the ending of the film which confirms its completely uninspired title.
At one point towards the end, when the protagonist is torn between which choice to make, whether to run away with Holden, who has meanwhile robbed the store and is wanted, or whether to return to her old life, being in the car, stopped in crossroads I was waiting for her to break out of the apparent impasse, finally going her own way. Giving up on both and turning the page! But maybe the public in 2002 couldn't handle such unbridled emancipation and feminism, bloody hell...I'm also holding a butt of course maybe this is all due to the ironic writing of the scandalous Mike White.

To conclude, I will refer to two moments that I found extremely enjoyable.
In the extremely comic figure of Mike White but also in the scenes in which he stars, playing the reverent-religious security of the store and especially in John Carroll Lynch who convincingly plays the determined, uber store manager.
In his final scene, he bids farewell to Holden with the majestic line: Holden...was a thief and a disturbed young man and what happened was a sad thing. Perhaps we can learn a lesson from this tragedy..like don't steal and don't be disturbed