The Good Girl
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: August 7, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
10
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Aniston and Reilly give the best of many excellent performances. A few plotty scenes aside, this quietly directed drama paints a sensitive, sympathetic portrait of modern malaise, and has a smart sense of humor as a bonus. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
The extraordinary quality of White's script and Arteta's direction lifts the meticulously cast actors to the height of their abilities. "Friends" star Aniston digs deep but is never showy. Reilly reveals the tenderness, vulnerability and hidden depth that can lurk within a slob, and Nelson has some of the film's most outrageously funny and inspired moments. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
A slow burn. A portrait of the mundane humor and horror of everyday life, it scalds nerves you may have never thought existed. And yet the film is funny, almost hilariously at times. Read full review
90
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Aniston delivers an utterly un-Rachel-like performance. It's neurosis-free and unmannered, by turns funny, sad and profound. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
There's more to everyone here than we're initially led to think. The Good Girl is like a neurotically charged post-millennial take on the trailer-park comedies that Jonathan Demme once claimed for himself. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Jennifer Aniston has at last decisively broken with her "Friends" image in an independent film of satiric fire and emotional turmoil. It will no longer be possible to consider her in the same way. Read full review
88
New York PostMegan Lehmann
A comedy as black as the asphalt desert of a mall parking lot. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Doesn't have the daring lunacy of "Chuck and Buck," the previous collaboration by director Miguel Arteta and writer Mike White. Yet it gets closer to the troubled, lonely soul of its main character. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
A sharp-tongued, subtly nuanced tragicomedy starring Jennifer Aniston, who shows her depth as a serious actress in this dark tale. Read full review
88
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
It's a deft sleight-of-story Aniston, White and Arteta pull off, giving us a character who seems more than she is, but is really less than she appears.
80
VarietyDavid Rooney
This one comes up short in terms of visual flair. But it delivers amusingly observed characters, consistent laughs underscored by the poignancy of unfulfilled existences and winning performances from a terrific cast captained by Jennifer Aniston. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Like "Chuck & Buck," The Good Girl is a droll, well-acted, character-driven comedy with unexpected deposits of feeling. Read full review
80
New Times (L.A.)Gregory Weinkauf
Arteta targets Middle American ennui with wit, compassion and no shortage of ornery malaise. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Succeeds as a moody, evocative, and pleasing film, one that underscores its indie roots in sentiment as well as style Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A smart, arch and rather cold-blooded comedy. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
There's humor in it, and sadness, and an acid-tinged humor that is miles away from the branded levity of "Friends." More power to Aniston for feeling the need to try something different, and then doing it -- well. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
There's a shallowness about The Good Girl that can't always be excused as an accurate portrayal of a shallow milieu -- in the end, just like Justine, it's not as good as it could have been. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Offers nothing more spectacular than a character study. And, although The Good Girl's protagonist may be trapped by routine, that's one claim that can never be made about the movie. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Never crosses over into meanness, and even the most satirical character has a moment of empathy. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
In Aniston's previous film roles, the "Friends" star has made little impression, but under the direction of the gifted young Arteta, she's certainly grown to fill the big screen here, and looks ready to leap from TV to film. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderBill Stamets
This is hardly Flaubert, but it is a fairly beguiling look at moral calculation. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Aniston plays her depressed character with enough conviction to guarantee that practically every scene will be stolen out from under her by minor characters, among them a pricelessly funny Zooey Deschanel as a Retail Rodeo employee who vents her rage and frustration on the customers. Read full review
70
Washington PostStephen Hunter
It's tough, astringent, darkly funny and . . . well, it's also generic, untidy, condescending and mild of impact rather than stunning. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
At its best, The Good Girl is a refreshingly adult take on adultery, where the dark humor and offbeat fringe characters don't get in the way of the consequences or the quiet declarations of devotion slipped between the words. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Despite Aniston's hard work, Good Girl could be better. Read full review
60
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Never quite establishes its own identity, and when you remember it in two years it's likely to be that movie you saw that you kind of liked with that girl in it, what's her name, from TV. Read full review
60
Film ThreatDon R. Lewis
While many questions and motivations are left unanswered, overall the film wins out with it's stark truths and slightly twisted pay off's along the way. Read full review
60
Rolling StonePeter Travers
There are times when The Good Girl is so low-key it damn near flatlines. Luckily, White creates compelling characters with a few deft brush strokes. The actors fill in the rest. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Even during the most intense moments, it's hard to shake the impression that the conspicuously buff-and-polished Justine is only visiting this drab world, her miserable life an interesting career move. Read full review
60
TimeRichard Schickel
What makes The Good Girl worthwhile is its performances. All the actors play their entrapment with a weirdly convicted blankness. That's especially true of Aniston. Read full review
60
SlateDavid Edelstein
The movie gets funnier and less obvious as it goes along, and Zooey Deschanel is a hoot as a disdainfully bored co-worker who ritually insults the zombie chain-store shoppers -- but what is The Good Girl saying, exactly? Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
The Good Girl isn't really the title of this movie at all. Instead, it's now widely known as The Movie That Proves Jennifer Can Act. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Only pretends to care about good people who sometimes do bad things. In fact, it hasn't got time for the pain. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalNancy deWolf Smith
Although The Good Girl is peppered with amusing small-town eccentrics in refreshingly original guises, it gets off to a long, slow start.
50
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Skillfully sketches the parameters of its small-town existence but never quite fleshes out the inhabitants of those parameters. Without the well-considered humor and strongly defined characters of "Chuck," only a good cast stands between Girl and some familiar stereotypes. Read full review
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