Aniston of the Week

Aniston of the Week: She’s the One

Posted on December 4, 2015December 18, 2015 by harrietwarman

We’re six weeks into our Aniston investigation and it turns out there’s a lot of the nineties still to get through. With that in mind, we delve into what might be deemed half an Aniston, where our favourite Friend doesn’t get the screen time she deserves.

FILM: She’s the One
DIRECTOR: Edward Burns
YEAR: 1996
CHARACTER NAME AND PROFESSION: Renee, seemingly of no profession.
PLOT SUMMARY: Brothers Mickey (Edward Burns) and Francis (Michael McGlone) each have romantic ‘dilemmas’. Mickey recently returned from a three year trip he took to recover from breaking up with his fiancée Heather (Cameron Diaz), works as a cabbie and one day decides to marry a beautiful fare, named appropriately – Hope (Maxine Bahns) – when she asks him to drive her all the way to someone else’s wedding. Francis is a wall-street broker, married to Renee (Aniston), but having an affair with Heather. He berates Mickey constantly for not having financial success, despite being a miserable, cheating bastard. They take advice from their father, played by John Mahoney. So far, so nineties.

CHARACTER TRAITS: Renee is sharp, witty, kind and loyal to her husband.
NOTES ON PERFORMANCE: Aniston is on pretty good form here, her comedic skills are used well in the scenes with Francis which expose his conservative views, consistently giving her the upper hand, though there’s little here to distinguish her from Rachel Green. She works hard to convince us that she’s still in love with Francis but doesn’t totally convince, mainly due to McGlone’s repetitive performance.

0440392_46404_MC_Tx304 — Michael McGlone as Francis and Edward Burns as Mickey

NOTES ON FILM: Diaz and Aniston are the only highlights here. They’re both confident, kind, assertive women, whose actions expose the asshole that is Francis. Which makes you wonder – why is this film about him? Also, Mickey isn’t that much better, yes he doesn’t cheat on anyone, but he has almost no presence, making his double act with McGlone one of absence and overbearing, the result of which is one frustrating film. Interestingly (or is it?) Burns seems to have directed another film before this also co-starring Bahns and McGlone, called The Brothers McMullen (1995), about three Irish-Catholic brothers. There’s also The Fitzgerald Family Christmas (2012), directed by Burns, also co-starring McGlone about a family and their problems. I would never have thought after seeing She’s the One, that I’d be dying for another TWO films from Burns about angsty brothers.
CONCLUSION: Aniston all but disappears from the film in the last act, which is a major disappointment. More Aniston! Less Burns!

Aniston of the week: Friends with Money

Posted on November 27, 2015December 4, 2015 by harrietwarman

After the horror of last weeks’ Horrible Bosses, rather than dive right back into that misogynistic pit for the sequel, we look back to one of those ‘serious’ roles where Aniston shows that less is more. Aniston is also in very good company, among a solid cast who all underplay in order to hold up the film’s weighty, worthy theme.

18858048.jpg-r_640_600-b_1_D6D6D6-f_jpg-q_x-xxyxx — Aniston as Olivia

FILM: Friends with Money
DIRECTOR: Nicole Holofcener
YEAR: 2006
CHARACTER NAME AND PROFESSION: Olivia, Maid/Housekeeper
PLOT SUMMARY: Three couples are friends with Olivia, they are all wealthy, she is not. Christine (Catherine Keener) and David (Jason Isaacs) are screenwriters who work together, have one son and are having an extension built on the top of their house that will allow them to see the ocean. Franny (Joan Cusack) is a full time mother (with full time help), married to Matt (Greg Germann) who is a doctor (I think). Jane (Frances McDormand) is a fashion designer married to Aaron (Simon McBurney), who owns an organic ‘LUSH’ type cleansing product company, they have one son. Olivia (Aniston) used to teach at a very fancy private prep school, but she left because it was ‘unbearable’ – the children teased her because they perceived her as poor. She now works as a housekeeper/maid and Franny, in particular wants to fix her. She starts dating Franny’s trainer Matt (Scott Caan) who treats her very badly.

CHARACTER TRAITS: Low self-esteem, kind, depressed, thoughtful.
NOTES ON PERFORMANCE: Aniston really holds back here and is very convincing. Olivia is the kind of person with enough self-worth to remove herself from a bad work situation (the fancy school), but not enough to stop pining for her married ex-lover, or be defiant against the awful Mike, who insists on splitting her earnings when he accompanies her to jobs, despite sleeping with her and cleaning a couple of shelves. Aniston moves through each scene as though not actually present, and it’s only really when she’s calling her ex that we see a spark of energy. It works, because the film is leading to a set-up that requires us to believe she’ll start a relationship with someone who has ‘people problems’ just like her.

Jen-in-Friends-With-Money-jennifer-aniston-601033_1500_1002 — Ain’t no snooty store clerk gonna deny Christine her sample!

NOTES ON FILM: Writer/Director Holofcener (Enough Said, 2013) here is pretty broad in her judgement of the wealthy versus the poor, with Franny wondering aloud whether she’d be friends with Olivia if they met now – we’ve been wondering the same thing. They’re all oblivious and Olivia’s acceptance of them is explained by her passiveness generally. There are some nice details here, such as Olivia’s gathering of sample creams, which demonstrate that she’s still aiming thriftily at the luxury she used to enjoy unimpeded. Her last act union with Marty (Bob Stephenson) isn’t wholly convincing, due to their lack of chemistry, but it’s almost believable that these two people’s combined issues would lead them to each other. It’s also worth noting that Frances McDormand is excellent, as ever.
CONCLUSION: A low-key, commendably reserved performance in a half-interesting film.

Aniston of the Week: Horrible Bosses

Posted on November 20, 2015December 1, 2015 by harrietwarman

This week, a ‘comedy’ in which Aniston plays against type, demonstrates the ignorance and insensitivity of mainstream Hollywood. It’s hard to enjoy her obvious comic skill when it’s presented in such a problematic way. Nevertheless, C.I endures, and watches anyway.

FILM: Horrible Bosses
DIRECTOR: Seth Gordon
YEAR: 2011
CHARACTER NAME AND PROFESSION: Dr Julia Harris, Doctor of Dental Surgery.
PLOT SUMMARY: Three men who hate their bosses but for various reason cannot quit their jobs, decide to murder them instead. Nick (Jason Bateman) works for Dave Harken, who insists he works all hours of the day for a promotion that doesn’t exist and makes it impossible for him to get another job. Kurt works for Bobby Pellitt (Colin Farrell), a coke addict, who uses his office as a sex den, seemingly. Aniston plays the boss of Dale (Charlie Day) whom she sexually harasses and blackmails.
CHARACTER TRAITS: Irresponsible, unethical, inappropriate, rapist (she undresses and puts Dale, and other patients in sexual positions whilst they’re unconscious, she grabs his penis against his will). The film labels her as a ‘Crazy Bitch.’

5482291029efc_-_horrible-bosses-jennifer-aniston-xl — Aniston with Charlie Day as Dale

NOTES ON PERFORMANCE: Aniston was celebrated for her portrayal of Julia, as it appeared she was playing against the ‘girl-next-door’ image she’d become known for. While it’s true that Aniston utterly convinces as the cruel, manipulative character she portrays, she’s also very much exploited for her attractiveness, which is a deeply problematic treatment of someone who harasses and violates her junior at work.
NOTES ON FILM: By all counts, Horrible Bosses is a truly terrible film. Three white men solicit advice from a black man to give them advice about how to kill their bosses. There are numerous gay jokes and rape jokes. Aniston’s entire character is demonstrable of how Hollywood enforces the notion that female on male rape is somehow a joke/a good thing/impossible. She’s made the object of a male gaze, and it’s constantly suggested that Dale should be grateful for the attention he’s getting from her because she’s so ‘hot’.

Horrible Bosses 2 Stills 2014 HD Wallpapers — L-R Jamie Foxx as Dean ‘Muthafucka’ Jones, Charlie Day as Dale, Jason Sudeikis as Kurt and Jason Bateman as Nick

Furthermore, though Dale confronts her, asking to work in a ‘rape free’ environment, it’s not the sexual harassment that’s presented as a problem for him, it’s the threat that Julia makes to tell his fiancée that they’ve slept together. The screenplay attempts to extracts laughs from a scenario in which a man is made to feels he’s unable to confide in his fiancée something that negatively affects his daily life. That’s not funny, it’s a tragedy. Finally, Aniston’s character is the only female to have any significant screen time – the rest are either naïve, unfaithful or exploited for a fat joke.

CONCLUSION: Apparently another rape scene was deleted from Horrible Bosses 2. Can’t wait to see what they left in.

Aniston of the Week

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