Nicole Holofcener is clearly a very articulate director. The whole film consists of three dinner parties to support a narrative frame, three rich couples plus a Cinderella-like Olivia. For the first time, Olivia had just quit her job as a middle school teacher and instead became a house-cleaning maid. At the second dinner, Olivia was about to quit her maid job, and she was extremely depressed. At the third dinner, Olivia brought her just-befriended boyfriend with a radiant face. Finally, at the end of the film, Olivia learned from her boyfriend that he turned out to be a rich boy. The ugly fat guy turned out to be a prince-like character. And Olivia was confused as a Cinderella.
If Olivia's Cinderella story is full of comedy, then the life of the three wealthy couples contrasted with it is quite twilight. When the film faces Olivia, it is undoubtedly quite relaxed. However, when describing the three wealthy couples, they are walking on thin ice. The director clearly wanted to play Woody Allen-esque humor, but didn't play it very well. Because there is no humor in the lives of those three couples. On the contrary, the crisis is full of dangers, and if you are not careful, a tragedy will arise.
In the words of one of the wives, their lives were like waiting to die. Starting a family, starting a business, having children, everything that should be done seems to be done. The enthusiasm between the beds has long since disappeared. Homosexually inclined husband, looking for same-sex lover. The irritated wife accidentally broke her nose because she was quarreling with people when she bumped into someone else while parking or shopping. As for the couple who wanted to gain a sense of accomplishment in building a new house, they were discouraged by complaints from neighbors.
The life comparison of Olivia and the three wealthy couples can be said to be a mirror of each other. The three couples seen in the mirror of Olivia are enviable that they have no troubles with money; but from the mirror formed by the three couples, Olivia is still young, and she is getting older and younger. A late sigh. Olivia, who was divorced, obviously yearned for a fixed man by her side. She made habitual calls to her ex-husband and hung up habitually without saying a word to him. This is not seen in the mirrors of those three couples. What Olivia couldn't see in the mirror was the unhappiness of a happy marriage.
Couples who have been married for more than ten years, plus people who are middle-aged, are simply a life that is worse than death. Whether it is a wife or a husband, their hearts are filled with nameless anger caused by monotony, dullness, dullness, boredom, etc. I don’t know when and on what occasion, they will suddenly rise up and burn out a disaster. . This is a fundamental reason why director Hellesner is careful. He didn't want to upset the audience by drawing out the anger that was deep inside the couple's hearts.
Compared to Olivia's Cinderella-style comedy, the lives of the three wealthy couples can lead to tragedy if they are not careful. Woody Allen was an expert at laughing in everyday life like that, making American audiences laugh and laughing, and became a master of a generation. Poor Helenus obviously didn't have the ambition to become a master, so he had to smooth out the edges and corners of life, put out the indignation, and gave the audience a gentle massage with a smile.
In all fairness, it is not easy to make new ideas for such a story. Not to mention the shadow of Woody Allen ahead, even an "American Beauty" ("American Beauty") is enough to block the road to innovation. "American Beauty" just gently opened a corner of middle-aged life, which is already shocking. Compared with Dali's painting "Opening the Skin of the Sea", "American Beauty" reveals a rather ordinary kind of sadness. But even with such ordinary sadness, Helenus was afraid of hurting the audience, so he avoided it if he could. Moreover, it also deliberately used a Cinderella-style ending to dilute the tragic color that the film may have. This is not so much mediocre as it is out of a kindness that does not want to offend the audience.
Sitting in an American movie theater and watching the works of American directors, one can always feel a certain tacit understanding between the film and the American audience. One is the buyer and the other is the seller. The seller doesn't want the buyer to walk out of the theater crying, and the buyer doesn't want to go into the movie theater and cry. It should be noted that sitting next to him is not a girlfriend who has just made a relationship, or an old husband and wife who have lived for many years. No one wants to see the great tragedy and pain in the movies that make people unable to live.
As for film critics active in American newspapers and magazines, they will not criticize the film for not being truthfully made into a tragedy. Americans don't play with heartbeats, they are happy. You could call it a business ploy, or you could call it an American kind of thoughtfulness. Therefore, the most tragic thing about "Rich Friends" is that a wife broke her nose in a fit of anger. And the funniest of them all was Olivia wearing an old-fashioned maid's uniform, making love with a man on the bed without feeling anything. The second place shows all the classic pictures of Woody Allen, or, in other words, the cliché of Woody Allen.
Compared with generations of European film masters such as Bergman or Kislowski, Woody Allen's films are nothing more than clever picks from everyday life, which are occasionally mixed with Sherlock savvy. But even this kind of shrewdness, such little cleverness, seems to be an insurmountable mountain for American directors. As far as film aesthetics are concerned, it's really not a compliment. Even if she has to stay away from tearing up her gray life, at least Olivia can continue to struggle in poverty, so why not give her a rich child? Maybe the director wanted to imply that Olivia finally got the same life as her rich women friends. If this is the case, then the difference in life is the presence or absence of money.
Admittedly, the film's footing is very realistic. The reality is that it is impossible to think about it from the perspective of art, and can only appreciate it from the life itself. Watching such a film, you will never think of Shakespeare. It may be associated with Woody Allen at most. As for the least...it's like Sherlock in "The Merchant of Venice". Sherlock still had the guts to cut flesh off a debtor, and Rich Friend just had a woman smashed her nose. What's even more funny is that such a trivial matter turned out to be like a car accident. The women gathered at the hospital, and the husband, who was dating his new boyfriend, arrived quickly. From scenes like this, you can feel Woody Allen snickering and slipping away from the director.
This is neither a bright symphony nor an exciting concerto, but a drippy serenade. It's okay to sing, and there's basically no stupidity.
Written in New York, April 16, 2006
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