Sometimes a movie is just a movie. It begins, the audience watches, then it ends. Most of the time the two worlds, the real and the pretend, don't really touch each other in the process. If they do, it's usually too overwhelming for most people to like it.

Sometimes, though, a movie can simply tell a story ÷ a little story someone thought up, and unpretentiously find its way towards little kisses of truth.

"The Good Girl" isn't a brilliant cinematic showcase or a painted poem on film or anything like that. Most of it is plain style is just like every other movie's. What sets it apart is its honesty.

Jennifer Aniston plays Justine Last, a clerk at the local Retail Rodeo somewhere in Texas. Her slow, drawling opening narrative tells us that she hates this job and her life in general, and that she wonders if no one else feels this way or if they're just hiding it.

Lots of real people wonder this, and many of them write stories about people who kill themselves in the end. Jake Gyllenhaal plays one such character who works with Justine at the Retail Rodeo. Bored and disgusted with her marriage, Justine introduces herself to Holden and they begin an affair.

The film could have gone any number of directions from here. If it were an indie film, it would probably get sicker, while if it were a blockbuster, Holden would turn out to be a serial killer.

Instead, the filmmakers just focus in on the choice Justine has to either indulge her bored recklessness or take responsibility for the life she despises.

This dilemma could be answered tritely, as so often it is on film, but instead becomes a complex look at what Justine is really struggling with.

For some reason, setting this film in Texas seems to make the story more beautiful. There's no accent like a southern one for voice-over narration, and Texas is as believably a place of monotony and desperation as anywhere.

The acting in this film is excellent. It's one of those movies where all involved is are good actors and fill their role just right. Anyone with any doubts about Aniston's ability in a serious role need not look further than this movie.

She is enchantingly honest about her character, who, while interesting because she's unhappy, also manages to be fascinatingly mundane. John C. Reilly plays Justine's "pig" husband, and Tim Blake Nelson his less appealing friend. Along with Gyllenhaal, they are complex and endearing as minor characters, adding volumes of truth to Justine's predicament.

This film takes a simple question and asks what the answer really is, not what would the audience like to see.

It examines the meaning of loneliness and boredom, and more profoundly, the human connections that help to heal them.