A Good Person

When Morgan Freeman said, "I'm hugging you with my eyes", I completely lost my cool and little did I know, that was just the start. A Good Person isn't a roller coaster, it's an intergalactic journey of struggle and redemption. Everyone's hyping up Oppenheimer right now, but Florence Pugh was 10/10 perfect here too. And, this will not come as a shock, Molly Shannon is the perfect mother for a recovering drug addict. Morgan Freeman pairs well with every character he comes into contact with. In usual Braff fashion, the score is also amazing. A Good Person was a truly complete and surreal experience and I hope Zach Braff never stops making movies. One final note- "I will forever grieve for the life that we might have had". *exhales painfully* what an ending.

Leave it to funnyman Zach Braff to play a subtle joke on all of us: casually and quietly dropping a superbly-written, powerfully-acted emotional gut-punch of a film the same day that we also get the gleeful carnage-fest that is John Wick 4. What a good weekend for movies this is turning out to be.

A Good Person tells a story of addiction recovery that has certainly been done many times before, but rarely do we ever see it done with this much tact, wit, and genuine power.

Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman both arguably give some of their finest performances here, with Pugh bleeding raw grief and Freeman sporting visible scars of grief so convincingly. Their friendly chemistry is tangible and compulsively watchable. If they were all this movie had to rely on, they would carry it easily.

Thankfully, though, the film also has the finest screenplay I've seen this year. The dialogue has an engaging charm to it but never loses its authenticity, carrying character development for EVERY character effortlessly and subtly through natural conversation.

When writing a comedy about a topic as bleak as this, it's very difficult to balance tones, but Braff makes it look easy. His film switches quickly between heart-wrenching and gut-bustingly funny many times within a scene, and often blends these tones together while never once coming across as insensitive or mean-spirited.

Braff clearly cares about his characters, and wants us to find the humor in their situations because he loves them and wants them to be happy.

My only complaint, if it even is a complaint, is that I found the ending to be a little too...nice, easy, and clean. A little bow gets wrapped on top of the ending of an emotional rollercoaster of a story and it seemed like the only contrived part of an otherwise beautifully authentic tale of recovery through genuine purpose.

To start, I LOVE Florence Pugh. She had me at Midsommer and I've been a huge fan since. She definitely was the amazing talent in this movie. I chose my title because, as many of you probably do, you scroll through the other posts and then come up with your own take and THIS MOVIE - is one that is much better if your life has been somewhere close to where Allie's (Pugh) life took her. This is a story of grief, guilt, love, hate - it really runs the gamut. Admittedly, the story doesn't bring anything new to the table but I don't think it has to. I believe that when you can see yourself through Allie's story - it's pretty gripping. How did Allison Janney say it in 'The Help' - 'love and hate are two ends of the same horse'? I guess you're going to love this movie or hate it. As a woman of 50+ years that has had my own rocky road, I'm blown away at how well FP acts out the character of Allie. She's so young and it usually takes real life trauma to unearth those acting chops.

I vote you watch this. Zach Braff (director) punched out a great story.

For some inexplicable reason Morgan Freeman cannot hold a film by himself. But when coupled with a similarly talented co-star he shines brightly, and he does here when paired with the exceptional Florence Pugh.

A simple tale of loss and grief, redemption and forgiveness, but a story of a long and difficult journey to achieve all of those things.

Freeman and Pugh both give vulnerable, honest performances designed to show true grief and shame and anger, rather than poorly portrayed emotions.

It's an old story really of overcoming grief and shame and addiction and coming to terms with life, but it's done so powerfully here without us having to fill in any blanks or be unsure of the real affect on the people involved.

A major plot point offers an interesting and surprising glitch when Daniel berates Allison her for being on her phone when she crashed, yet he's just driven to meet her while very drunk. His anger at her is very ironic.

Nevertheless, fine performances from everyone, great, thoughtful dialogue and beautifully directed. Don't miss this one.

I found myself falling in and out of love with this film. At times it is very punchy and powerful and full of gut wrenching emotion. But too often these moments surrender to more formulaic story beats and slightly cliche and over the top drama. The result is a strong film, but I can't help but think an opportunity was missed.

Narratively I think there are a few missteps that detract from the emotion of the whole piece. It gets bogged down in the Morgan Freeman angle of the story which takes the focus away from the more compelling Florence Pugh angle. This makes the whole thing a little bloated, which weakens some of its emotional punches. It is a strong story and still very emotional nonetheless, but it fails to fully get into some of the interesting issues it raises.

The story may not blow you away, but the lead performance definitely will. I might as well just prepare some boiler plate text for any reviews I write for a Florence Pugh film as she is always brilliant. In every film I see her in every second she is off screen seems like a second wasted. There are so many moments in this film where you feel like it is just you and her as she connects you to the character and the story in such a masterful way. Well worth seeing this film for her alone.

Despite not quite living up to my expectation, A Good Person is a solidly good film. Pugh shines in a powerfully written role, but the whole piece could have done with a little more refinement.