The Good Girl

For other uses, see Good Girl.

The Good Girl
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Miguel Arteta
Produced by	Matthew Greenfield
Written by	Mike White
Starring	Jennifer Aniston Jake Gyllenhaal John C. Reilly Tim Blake Nelson Zooey Deschanel Mike White
Music by	Tony Maxwell James O'Brien Mark Orton Joey Waronker
Cinematography	Enrique Chediak
Editing by	Jeff Betancourt
Studio	Myriad Pictures Flan de Coco Films
Distributed by	Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release date(s)	August 7, 2002 (2002-08-07) (Limited) August 30, 2002 (2002-08-30)
Running time	93 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5 million
Box office	$16,856,124

The Good Girl is a 2002 black comedy-drama film directed by Miguel Arteta from a script by Mike White, and stars Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal and John C. Reilly.

Plot

The film starts with narration about the life of Justine Last (Jennifer Aniston), a sad and lonely 30-year-old woman living in a dusty Texas town in the middle of nowhere. She works at the local Retail Rodeo (a downscale parody of Wal-Mart), with Cheryl (Zooey Deschanel), a cynical young girl who inserts subliminal profanities in announcements to the sleepwalking customers; Gwen (Deborah Rush), the overly peppy, older woman who works with Justine in the cosmetics department; and Corny (Mike White), the religion-obsessed security guard. Justine's home life is no better. She returns home every night to her dim-witted husband Phil (John C. Reilly), a house painter who spends more time getting high and drinking on the couch with his best friend Bubba (Tim Blake Nelson) than doing any work. Justine's life is mundane, and while she plans to have a baby with Phil to improve things, she feels trapped, and there seems to be no sign of escape. All this changes when, one day, a new, young cashier named Thomas "Holden" Worther (Jake Gyllenhaal) starts working at the Retail Rodeo. Holden keeps to himself and always has his nose in a copy of The Catcher in the Rye claiming that his own life parallels that of Holden Caulfield. Justine and Holden start spending a lot of time together, having lunch every day and even hanging out after work. He and Justine slowly become friends and she realizes that they are the same: He hates the world as much as she does.

One day, Holden does not show up for work, but sends a letter to Justine, proclaiming his love for her telling her that if she does not meet him at 5 p.m. that day, he will never see her again. Justine plans to go, but suddenly Gwen feels unwell at work and needs to be taken to the hospital. Justine is obliged to drive her there, but abandons her at the entrance and races to meet up with Holden. He meets her, and they agree to have a relationship, proceeding to a motel where they have passionate sex. Gwen is diagnosed with food poisoning, and dies a few days later. Over the next several days, Justine begins to feel more alive than she has in a long time. She and Holden continue their relationship, keeping it secret from their co-workers, Phil, and Holden's parents, meeting at the motel for sex. Justine narrowly avoids exposure on several occasions, as when she almost runs into the motel manager at a church with Phil. Eventually, Corny sees the two kissing on the security camera and confronts her, but ultimately agrees to stay silent. Things get more complicated when Bubba discovers and monitors the affair, then arranges to have Justine meet him at his own house and reveals what he has learned. Bubba blackmails Justine, saying that if she doesn't have sex with him, he will be forced to tell Phil. Justine reluctantly allows this, though while they are having sex, Holden is seen to be watching them. Later, a drunken Holden confronts Justine after work, calling her a whore for betraying him by having sex with Bubba. The affair quickly moves from liberation to poisonous obsession as she begins to feel Holden is unstable, obsessive, and too immature.

Several days later, Justine feels stomach cramps and her breasts begin swelling, and concludes she may be pregnant. When Holden meets with Justine after work, they drive past the same fruit stand that sold parasitic fruit to Gwen, which was the cause of her fatal food poisoning. Realizing how disturbed Holden is, Justine decides she needs to rid herself of Holden if she ever wants to go straight. She buys him the parasite-infested blackberries, but ultimately is unable to bring herself to complete her plan, and throws away the fruit as he is eating them. Justine's pregnancy test comes back positive, leaving Phil ecstatic. Justine realizes it is not Phil's child, but Holden's. Holden, wanting to convince Justine to begin a new life on the road together, robs the Retail Rodeo safe of $15,000. After questioning Justine finds him outside the store and they drive off. During their car ride Justine reveals she is pregnant making Holden want to live with her even more. He happily gives her "The story of her life" a book inspired by her. Having gone home Justine meets Phil, Bubba and Bubba's girlfriend. Phil then receives the result of an earlier sperm test and learns that he is sterile. Justine manipulates him into believing the sperm test was wrong, but Phil finds charges for the motel on their credit card bill and figures out that Justine has been having an affair. He breaks down and asks if the child is his. Justine lies and tells him it is. Then, on the run from the police, Holden arranges with Justine to meet at the motel and leave town. At one point, Justine is at a traffic light, where she must make a choice: live life as a fugitive with Holden, or stay in her mundane one with Phil. Justine chooses to stay, and alerts the police to Holden's location. Surrounded and not wanting to be arrested, Holden commits suicide.

The movie ends with Justine reading the short story that Holden had written about her. She understands that she was using Holden as a means to escape her mundane life. She finally realizes that no one can escape reality or from the consequences of one's actions, and that any attempt to do so breeds further consequences. She and Phil reconcile and welcome the birth of a daughter. In the DVD release, Justine narrates that she chooses Holden, and they run away together to live in the woods "never to be heard from again" as she and Holden sit together by a lake.

Cast

• Jennifer Aniston as Justine Last
• Jake Gyllenhaal as Thomas "Holden" Worther
• John C. Reilly as Phil Last
• John Carroll Lynch as Jack Field
• Tim Blake Nelson as Bubba
• Zooey Deschanel as Cheryl
• Mike White as Corny
• Deborah Rush as Gwen Jackson
• Aimee Garcia as Nurse

Critical reception

The film was well received by critics, earning an 82 percent "fresh" rating on the film review site Rotten Tomatoes. The consensus for the film was, "As Justine, Aniston proves she can successfully act outside her longtime Friends role." Roger Ebert gave the film 3 and a half stars and also praised Aniston's performance, and saying The Good Girl is an "independent film of satiric fire and emotional turmoil".^{[citation needed]}

External links

• Official website
• The Good Girl at the Internet Movie Database
• The Good Girl at Box Office Mojo
• The Good Girl at Rotten Tomatoes