Your Friends & Neighbors

Your Friends & Neighbors
Directed by	Neil LaBute
Produced by	Steve Golin Jason Patric
Written by	Neil LaBute
Starring	Amy Brenneman Aaron Eckhart Catherine Keener Nastassja Kinski Jason Patric Ben Stiller
Cinematography	Nancy Schreiber
Editing by	Joel Plotch
Distributed by	Gramercy Pictures
Release date(s)	August 19, 1998
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5,000,000 (estimated)
Box office	$4,710,749 (USA sub-total)

Your Friends & Neighbors is a 1998 comedy-drama film written and directed by Neil LaBute and starring Amy Brenneman, Aaron Eckhart, Catherine Keener, Nastassja Kinski, Jason Patric, and Ben Stiller in an ensemble cast. This film was the first to be reviewed on the website Rotten Tomatoes. The film's credit sequences feature music by Apocalyptica.

Plot synopsis

The movie is a frank portrayal of intertwining sexual relationships between three upper-class couples in an undisclosed location, the film specifically avoids using outside shots. Much of the film's plot involves various characters expressing sexual dissatisfaction and entering into affairs with each other, including a homosexual liaison. The characters are never named until the end credits, where they are given rhyming names such as "Mary", "Jerry" and "Terri".

Set in an unnamed Midwestern American city (hinted to be Chicago), two urban, middle-class couples deal with their unhappy relationships by lying and cheating on one another in their quest for happiness. Jerry (Ben Stiller), is a flirtatious theater instructor who is married to Terri (Catherine Keener), a writer who is alienated and unfulfilled with his overly verbose and aggressive love-making skills. Jerry and Terri have dinner with Mary (Amy Brenneman), a writer friend of Terri's, and Barry (Aaron Eckhart) a sad-sack business executive who is oblivious to his wife's unhappiness with him. During dinner, Mary talks about writing for a local newspaper column about bickering couples and the troubles they have, while Barry does not think that other couple problems are anyone else's concern. After dinner, the lothario Jerry secretly makes a discreet pass at Mary whom he asks out on a date. Mary, out of frustration in her unsatisfied life with Barry, accepts.

The next day, Terri, after going to a local art gallery, meets and begins a secret romance with Cheri (Nastassja Kinski), a lesbian art gallery worker. Terri feels satisfied with their lovemaking and enjoys the quiet of it compared with Jerry's loud and macho performance. Meanwhile, Cary (Jason Patric) is a mutual and caddish doctor friend of Barry's. He is also a devious, sexual predator who targets naïve and emotionally vulnerable young women whom he picks up, has sex with, and dumps just for the sole purpose of watching them cry. Aware of the distance between Barry and Mary, Cary persuades Barry to leave his wife for the swinging cruising lifestyle that Cary has built for himself. Barry thinks that his marriage can be saved.

Jerry and Mary's rendezvous at a local downtown hotel becomes a disaster when Jerry fails to get aroused during foreplay. As a result, Jerry takes out his frustrations on Mary, believing that she has made him impotent. Angry and offended by his outburst, Mary abruptly ends their so-called "affair", and she feels even more miserable a few days later, when Barry unwittingly takes her to the very same hotel room to rekindle their romance, because he heard Jerry talking about that room without going into specifics as to whom he had been there with. Mary realizes that Jerry had told Barry about being in the room. Barry fails to understand Mary's unhappy attitude and thinks he might somehow be responsible for it.

During a gym outing, Jerry, Barry, and Cary get together to work out and, in the privacy of the steam room, Barry tries to get them to reveal their best sexual experiences. Barry tells them that he only feels satisfied with himself, thus implying that he gets off on self gratification. Cary then delivers a chilling monologue about his best sexual experience -- forcibly sodomizing a male high school classmate at his boarding school in the locker room. Both Barry and Jerry are stunned but fascinated by Cary's sordid and perverse remembrance. When Cary tries to persuade Jerry to reveal his best sexual experience, Jerry refuses. After being goaded in the locker room, Jerry responds that his best sexual experience was with Barry's wife. He then leaves, with Barry too stunned to respond, and Cary saying "that beats my story".

After returning home from the gym, Barry confronts Mary over dinner about her affair with Jerry just as Terri accidentally finds out about Jerry's indiscretion and eventually confronts him too. Mary and Jerry are both unapologetic for their unfaithfulness and express dissatisfaction to both of their spouses. Here, Terri accidentally reveals her own lesbian romance with Cheri, but does not display any guilt for her infidelity. Jerry soon confronts Cheri at the art gallery over his wife's affair with her. Cheri also shows no remorse for her relationship with Terri, or with interfering with Jerry and Terri's troubled marriage. Cheri tells Jerry that Terri can go much better than being with a Casanova like him.

Both of the couples split up. Terri moves in with Cheri, although she finds her emotional neediness to be irritating. Jerry continues his philandering lifestyle with his female theater students. Barry becomes miserable because he is no longer able to give himself an erection during masturbation. Mary moves in with Cary after falling for his charms as does every weak-willed woman he picks up. Sometime later, when Mary tells Cary that she's pregnant and wants to keep the baby, Cary finally shows his true misanthropic and misogynist colors when he yells at her for doing this to him (considering that he refuses to use condoms because of his male ego and pride). Mary realizes that she's even more unhappy in her new relationship with the heartless Cary than she had been with her clueless husband Barry.

Note: The film is a loosely based reflection of the restoration play The Country Wife by playwright William Wycherley. In this movie, the character Jerry is seen directing a scene from this play with his students.

Cast

• Amy Brenneman as Mary
• Aaron Eckhart as Barry
• Catherine Keener as Terri
• Nastassja Kinski as Cheri
• Jason Patric as Cary
• Ben Stiller as Jerry
• Josh Dotson as Co-worker
• Lola Glaudini as Jerry's Student

Awards

Jason Patric's performance as the misogynistic doctor Cary earned an award for Best Supporting Actor from the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards.

Patric also received a Best Supporting Actor - Drama nomination from the International Press Academy (Satellite Awards).

Reception

The film had mostly positive reviews. It has a 77% "certified fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

External links

• Your Friends & Neighbors at the Internet Movie Database
• Your Friends & Neighbors at AllRovi
• Your Friends & Neighbors at Rotten Tomatoes