The Object of My Affection is a surprisingly gutsy film that gets better as it goes along. Aniston plays Nina Borowski, a close-to-thirty Brooklyn gal with a crap boyfriend and a rewarding but lowly paid job in a Community Center. Paul Rudd plays George Hanson, a sensitive guy with a crap boyfriend and a rewarding but lowly paid job as a first grade teacher. Nina and George meet at a party, and later, when George becomes suddenly single, he moves in as Nina’s roommate. George and Nina become fast friends, much to the growing annoyance of Nina’s boyfriend Vince (John Pankow). Nina falls pregnant to Vince, but decides she’d rather raise it with George than its biological father, and this sticky situation plays out the film’s third act.

Nicholas Hytner directed The Madness of King George and The Crucible, and he appears in this movie as an aging drama critic with an unfaithful young lover. Hytner always draws fine performances from his actors, with stars of his previous two movies nominated for Oscars, and Aniston and Rudd are both very good. This film was a high gear shift for Aniston, who went on to nearly score an Oscar nomination herself for her next major role in The Good Girl. The marvellous Allison Janney doesn’t have much to work with, though, and it’s anyone’s guess why her character has married the spindly and cantankerous Sidney (Alan Alda).

The Object of My Affection has a fairly thoughtful script, even though chunks of the story’s midsection seem to flop around aimlessly for a while. It’s particularly notable for its treatment of gay-men-as-fathers and de facto father/husband figures for single straight women. For a while, the film seems to be sinking fast into the diabetic quagmire of fag-hag cheesy grins but there’s a surprising twist or two as Nina and George face up to some prickly home truths about their unconventional situation. The film explores these difficulties with refreshing candour – is anyone really happy with a cut-and-paste life and what happens when one of two lonely people meets a third, and isn’t feeling so lonely anymore?



Paul Rudd, who was Alicia Silverstone’s love interest in Clueless, is pretty convincing as the suburban gay guy who isn’t really interested in the razzle-dazzle antics of his Manhattan peers. Hytner’s lonely older man adds another thoughtful post-gay note. It’s great to see a film with this subject matter reject the idea that all anyone would really want is a lifestyle that could be the subject of a cover story for "The Advocate".