Director Miguel_Arteta and screenwriter/actor Mike_White, who collaborated on the supremely discomfiting Chuck & Buck, take a more humane tack in dissecting the trapped, flawed denizens of a suburban Texas town in The Good Girl. Jennifer_Aniston (Friends) breaks away from her sitcom persona as Justine, a bored department store cosmetics clerk, ironically described in the title. Aniston delivers a solid, appropriately low-key performance, and she's aided by White's script, which mixes occasional easy laughs with a surprising moral complexity, and by a sterling supporting cast. Standouts include John_C._Reilly as Phil, Justine's good-natured but feckless pothead husband, Tim_Blake_Nelson as Bubba, Phil's best friend, who secretly envies what he perceives as Phil and Justine's "perfect life," and Zooey_Deschanel (Almost_Famous) as Cheryl, Justine's glumly acerbic coworker. The talented Jake_Gyllenhaal (who played a completely different character in a similar situation opposite Catherine_Keener in Lovely & Amazing) brings a sweaty intensity to the pivotal role of Holden, Justine's intensely self-involved illicit love interest, a depressed white kid who refers to his given name, Tom, as his "slave name." Justine is the calm center of The Good Girl, and while she's never quite despicable, the film doesn't soft-pedal her selfishness, or the destruction her choices cause to those around her. The film is very funny at times, and it takes some surprising turns, but it's also slow-paced and glum. It's a fine feel-bad comedy. Josh Ralske, Rovi

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