Fridae

Four of Hollywood's best comic actresses team up with one of Hollywood most original writer-directors, and the result is pure gold.

Writer-director Nicole Holofcener is regarded as an astute observer of women's lives since her 1996 feature debut Walking and Talking, which examined the effect marriages have on female friendships. Subsequently, in 2002's Lovely and Amazing, Nicole tackled the issue of body image among women. It is no coincidence that the Sex & the City team invited her to direct a few episodes of the sitcom, because she understands the dynamics of women's lives and friendships so well.

And now, in Friends with Money, she looks at how wealth affects the way women treat each other and themselves. Catherine Keener, Francis McDormand and Joan Cusack play rich married L.A. women who live large and well. They are puzzled by their unmarried friend, Jennifer Aniston, who left her job as a schoolteacher and is now temping as a maid. Should they help her or hire her? As they carefully navigate their careers, marriages and friendships, these four women expose the tensions and absurdities of modern living.

Smart, sweet and funny, Friends with Money steers clear of passing judgment on any of these women. Instead, it simply shows their lives as they really are and lets you decide how you wish to see these women � as winners, losers or, simply as people caught up with the thankless business of modern living. As an unabashedly materialistic people, Singaporean viewer will see many shades of themselves in these characters. Don't miss it.