The Good House

The Good House follows Hildy Good, a prominent realtor in Wendover, a fictional coastal Massachusetts town resembling Gloucester. Hildy knows everyone in town, as she's lived here all her life with family and friends. She speaks directly to the audience by breaking the fourth wall to offer background information and gossip on the main characters. The town of Wendover feels very lived in by the end, due to how each well developed character is acted excellently. Hildy's struggle with alcoholism is incredibly believable because her relatable excuses and nonchalant internal voice is convincing. This is largely due to Sigourney Weaver's stellar performance as usual. As the film progresses, it passes through comedy, romance, drama, and finally suspense. I laughed, cried, felt on edge, and finally the ending warmed my heart.

In a world of junk revivals, it's wonderful to watch a fresh story with humor, heart, and hope. Everything about this story was perfect. I laughed and cried in a rollercoaster of emotions. At one point I was enjoying it so much, I became aware that it may be close to the end. I wanted to see more.

I enjoyed all the stories within the movie. Every character seemed to have their own issues and it was interesting to see Sigourney Weaver's character deal with each of them. Her character was strong and vulnerable.

Why does Hollywood continue to redo stories when writers like this are out there? A small slice of life type of movie is missed. This and mystery movies will always win over super heroes and rethinking what was already done.

Weaver's character should be unlikable, but the humanity of her flaws, as well as her humour makes that not so. I can't say this is Weaver's best film, but she's highly watchable.

Themes include friendship, class, and alcoholism. There's really not a lot new here, but Weaver breaking the 4th wall is a nice touch and all the subjects are treated with a degree of finesse.

I'm sure many will watch The Good House for the third outing of Kline and Weaver together, despite it being their softest. It's not as bleak as The Ice House, or as quirky as Dave.

This is predictable adult-contemporary fare, but I was engaged until the end. Weaver mostly steals the show.

When it is all done I suppose the main message of this movie could be "The importance of recovering addicts keeping in touch with their support group."

The cast features two of our favorites over the years, both in their 70s when this movie was shot, Sigourney Weaver as Hildy Good and Kevin Kline as Frank Getchell. They live in a smaller coastal Massachusetts community (apparently filmed in Nova Scotia) and many years earlier had something of a love relationship. Now they are just old friends, she a Real Estate agent, he the owner of a construction business.

Hildy had married and now has two adult daughters, her husband had left her some years back for a man but they remained friends enough to be at same holiday meals with family.

Hildy has a history, she drank too much, so much that sometimes she had no recollection of the prior day, even if a few bad things had happened. At one point her family and friends did an intervention, she recovered but in more recent years was pretending to go to meetings, and was secretly drinking on her own, usually a bottle of Merlot from the several cases she kept in her basement.

So this is really a story about Hildy, and builds on the apparently accurate concept that an alcoholic is incapable of throttling his or her alcohol intake, so it is abstain completely or revert to being a dangerous drunk.

There is a story arc, things get better by the end of the movie which is very well done with interesting, authentic dialog and stellar performances, especially from Weaver and Kline.

My wife and I watched it at home, streaming on Prime.

I'm glad I continued to watch this movie. When the main character played by Sigourney Weaver speaks directly to us viewers I tend to fall completely out of the action. Such films are not for me. Usually. The Good house is the exception.

For Sigourney Weaver is magnificent in this story about an alcoholic real estate agent who apparently has "full control". The plot is set in a small, idyllic town, and our protagonist knows most things about most people.

Yes, it's about alcoholism, but just as much about life in a small town - for better or for worse. The togetherness and the cozy environment are excellently portrayed. As well as all the secrets that people in a small town think they have. When it comes to the depiction of an alcoholic's life, this is shown in a different way here than in many other films. What I like is that it shows that an alcoholic is first and foremost a human being, with an alcohol problem. Not the other way around.

Many good supporting roles here, but Sigourney is the one that everything revolves around and is about in all the scenes. This is her film, and another proof of the versatile and talented actress she is.