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You'll feel a part of the group in 'Friends with Money'

It is hard maintaining close friendships, growing over time and evolving in compatible ways. Then when you add in the element of money, which divides people into haves and have-nots, our finances tend to dictate which of our friends we continue to remain comfortable around.

That is the terrain explored in Nicole Holofcener's newest character-driven comedy, Friends with Money, a smartly crafted, if overly talky, look at a circle of four female friends in Los Angeles.

Sony Pictures Classics 'Friends With Money' B+ The verdict: A well-observed character-driven comedy about L.A. malaise, with a terrific female cast. Director: Nicole Holofcener Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener, Frances McDormand, Joan Cusack, Jason Isaacs Run time: 88 minutes Release date: April 7, 2006 Rating: R for language, some sexual content and brief drug use. See showtimes Meet the director Five good reasons you'd want to be Nicole Holofcener's friend. On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'Friends With Money'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Because they are variously going through marital problems, fears of their own mortality or simply envy of each other, these women often act in petty, unlikable ways. Holofcener risks turning us off to them, but by the end of this compact little film, chances are you will have grown to feel like one of their friends.

We meet them first interacting over a restaurant meal, when Franny (Joan Cusack) and her husband complain about a quandary they are in. They are having trouble deciding what charity to donate money their accountant says they have to give away. Millions of dollars.

Jane (Frances McDormand) and Christine (Catherine Keener) — a successful clothes designer and a screenwriter, respectively — take this news relatively calmly, but Olivia (Jennifer Aniston), the youngest, only single member of the group, who has left her career as a Santa Monica teacher behind and is now cleaning homes and doing drugs, barely can contain her jealousy. As Jane, the most acerbic of the four, describes Olivia succinctly, "She's unmarried, a pothead and a maid."

Despite having a husband (Brit Simon McBurney) that everyone is convinced is gay, Jane has plenty of reason to be content. Yet she is morose about growing old, has stopped washing her hair because she does not see the point and she keeps flying into fits of rage over life's minor upsets.

Over head-to-head laptop computers, Christine writes movie scripts with her hubby (Jason Isaacs), but they both come to realize their marriage is breaking apart before their eyes. Their solution is to build an elaborate second story to their home, which destroys the view for their neighbors who are not shy about expressing their animosity.

These richly detailed characters — all well inhabited by this first-rate ensemble of actresses — almost mask the fact that Friends with Money has relatively little plot. Its chief storyline has to do with efforts to find a mate for Olivia, like the self-absorbed personal trainer (Scott Caan) with whom she has virtually nothing in common. Ultimately, she does find happiness of a sort — Holofcener is nothing if not an optimist for her characters' futures — but the resolution of Olivia's tale is the least believable part of the film.

Still, Aniston gives her best performance since 2002's The Good Girl, energized by playing another mopey loser. Keener, who has been in all three of Holofcener's films, is again ideally suited to the rhythms and malaise dealt her. But the movie belongs to McDormand, whose anger is palpable, very real, yet with a veneer of comedy over it.

Fans of the director-writer's Walking and Talking and Lovely and Amazing will find more of the same here, which is meant as a recommendation. Chances are, like these characters after they dine together, you will have plenty to talk about on the ride home from Friends with Money.