Zooey Deschanel Movie:

				Salesrank: 180646
		Used Price: $21.64
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
Jennifer Aniston gives a career-changing performance in The Good Girl, a movie that questions whether goodness is a virtue or a trap. Justine (Aniston), weary of her dead-end retail job and her childless marriage to Phil (John C. Reilly), diverts herself with a new coworker named Holden (Jake Gyllenhaal), who feels as ill-treated by his life as Justine does with hers. The empathy between them leads, all too quickly, to an affair--which just as quickly turns into an obsession that threatens to destroy Justine's marriage. But this is only the beginning; Phil's buddy Bubba (Tim Blake Nelson), the store security guard (Mike White), and a handful of other characters all have a part to play in the unraveling of Justine's life. The script and performances of The Good Girl are subtle but vivid, and the movie's emotional impact will linger long after the movie is over. --Bret Fetzer

The Good Girl [Region 2] Reviews:
Jennifer Aniston like I've never seen her before
2008-12-12 - THE GOOD GIRL is a bitter sweet movie with Jennifer Anniston like I've never seen her before, since she plays a bright, but down on her luck lady having marital problems with her pot addict husband(John C. Reilly) putting Justine(Jenn Anniston)in a "No win" situation prompting Justine to fall for a young sleazy troubled youngman(Holden)at his sexual peak giving her the attention & intimacy that her husband is failing to give her causing Nina to become co-dependent on Holden as a substitute for her disorganized husband(Phil), starting out with a steamy stunning sex scene with Holden in the hotel room when Justine seduces Holden for the first time showing Jennifer Anniston like I've never seen her before.

Fortunately, this movie ends up having a happy ending when Justine decides to dump Holden and reconcile with Phil(John C. Reilly)who decides to take over a new leaf and make a new start with Nina when they both discover that Justine is pregnant with his child.

Actually pretty good
2008-07-30 - I rented this movie for my wife because it had the girl from 'Friends', I expected it to be a lame chick flick that I'd fall asleep wathcing. To my surprise it turned out to be a really good movie. Men if you're in a similar situation where you pick out a movie for yourself and one for your girlfried / wife, give this one a chance.

an unneeded comedy
2008-06-29 - Nothing much to write about: A wonderful Jennifer Aniston ... a terrible screenplay!
I really don't like to provide one star only for any film because it clearly shows my mistake in picking it up and/or watching it. However, fully unexpected the storyboard as such Aniston was urged to play is that horrible that it justifies this my one star evaluation.
... the basic idea of the story isn't that bad at all but unfortunately the cinematic achievement is really miserable and only Aniston's splendid performance makes the film bearably; GOOD GIRL!

Don't bother
2008-02-03 - The other one-star reviewers have pretty well covered this movie, but I will say there were a few amusing scenes (not nearly enough in that hour and a half of wasted time). When a character commits adultery, deserts a friend during an emergency, tries to get rid of a mentally unstable lover by feeding him (she thinks) contaminated grapes, lies to her husband that he's the father of her baby, lies about whom she had an affair with, causing that man to be beaten up, and goes on about her life with the same expression throughout, with no change or growth in herself, her story is shallow, and the movie is pointless.

A guilty pleasure.
2008-01-23 - The Good Girl (Miguel Arteta, 2002)

You know those movies where you laugh, but every time you do you feel guilty for doing so? Yeah, that's The Good Girl. Arteta (Chuck and Buck) starts this off as if it's going to be a light, breezy (if mean-spirited) comedy, but things just keep getting more and more tragic. The brilliance of the film is that the more tragic they get, the funnier the script becomes. There are quite a few ways in which this film puts me in mind of Very Bad Things, and I mean that in the best of ways.

The story: Justine Last (Jennifer Aniston) is stuck. She's in a dead-end job, her husband (John C. Reilly) is a house painter with a serious dope habit and a bonehead for a best friend (Tim Blake Nelson), her own best friend (Deborah Rush) is about as deep as a pothole. Is this all there is to life? Enter Holden (Jake Gyllenhaal), a new cashier at her place of business, who feels the trials and tribulations of late adolescence just as Justine feels the trials and tribulations of adulthood, and the two of them strike up a friendship. Complications, as they say, ensue. And as it is in the movies, once complications ensue, everything that can go wrong does at the earliest possible opportunity.

This could have played out as a Lifetime Original Movie melodrama, but Arteta keeps his eyes on the prize-- making the viewer laugh, and making the viewer feel guilty about laughing. Aniston and Gyllenhaal both play their roles perfectly straight while everyone else around them plays for laughs, which only adds to the uncomfortable hilarity.

The more I think about it, the more impressed I am with this movie. Good stuff. ****