I’ve been lax in updating my list of 2006 movies, but here are five more:
Friends with Money – 8/10 – A fantastic script, full of truth. And, of course, Frances McDormand, Joan Cusack and Catherine Keener are such fine actors. Jennifer Anniston, on the other hand, is not. My only major complaint was the screen time that the male characters received in the film. They were more than just token males, but they didn’t get enough time to become fully-fledged characters.
United 93 – 9.5/10 – An incredibly hard movie to watch, but exceptionally done. You’ll never see a less sentimenal disaster movie. I’ve also seen Paul Greengrass’s excellent Omagh, about a bombing in Northern Ireland. Both films combine an intense anticipation with a visceral, unflinching documentary style. I can’t confirm it, but the film felt impeccably researched.
X-Men: The Last Stand – 6.5/10 – A worthwhile if unoriginal third film from this franchise. After Stewart and McKellen, the acting quality is mixed. The movie started well enough, but seemed to get muddled in the second half and staggered to a tepid finish. There are much better, edgier stories to tell in the X-men’s world–hopefully future films will feature them.
The Proposition – 7/10 – A violent, Australian western that’s half Unforgiven and half Heart of Darkness. The surreal feel of the movie’s outback scenes also reminded me, oddly, of sections of the Last Temptation of Christ. Guy Pierce is excellent as the scraggly anti-hero, and John Hurt steals both of his scenes. The script and music–both by Nick Cave–were clunky in places, but all in all the most enjoyable western I’ve seen in years.
The Break-Up – 4/10 – The more I think about this movie, the less I like it. The trailer is quite misleading, as the movie isn’t a simple romantic comedy. There isn’t enough humour, and the emotion of the dramatic scenes is too intense. As for the film itself, the two leads were playing such typical Vaughn and Anniston characters that they might as well have been playing themselves. Unfortunately, they had precious little onscreen chemistry. Ultimately, the movie didn’t know what it wanted to be, and the performers and script failed to deliver.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
I gather you’re not a big fan of Jennifer Anniston.
Re: Friends with Money & the development of the male characters. I agree, the focus of the story was on the women & their friendship. If the men were given short-shift, they will only have received the same treatment as most of the wife/girlfriend roles found in 90% of Hollywood films. It is usually the women’s roles that are cursory add-ons to the main, male, character-driven parts.
I’m curious to know if there are any big Jennifer Anniston fans.
The Breakup is on my Do Not See list.
Jo: My complaint wasn’t about the smallness of the men’s roles, but the medium-sizedness of them. That is, I’m very comfortable with men taking a backseat role in a film starring women. However, the men didn’t take enough of a backseat role.
The most glaring example was Frances McDormand’s husband, who had a subplot which was never resolved. Nor, in truth, could I really figure out why he got so much screen time.
In short, I’d advise that we see less of the men, not more.