The Good House

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.

It's a drama set in a modern-day fictional town called Wendover, Massachusetts. It follows a somewhat functioning alcoholic 60ish realtor as she faces the reality of her declining business and family relationships.

Hildy Good (Sigourney Weaver) is a woman in denial about her drinking and its impact on her life after she's gone through one rehab. She still has a decent relationship with her ex, Scott (David Rasche), who left her for a man. Her daughters, Tess (Rebecca Henderson) and Emily (Molly Brown) have a more strained relationship with Hildy because of their childhood memories of her drinking.

Hildy also engages with a young married woman, Rebecca (Morena Baccarin), who is having an affair with the town's psychiatrist, Peter Newbold (Rob Delaney). Finally, as Hildy's world begins to crumble, she reconnects with Frank (Kevin Kline), her high school love, who is now the town's provider of garbage collection, substantial renovations, as well as fishing for lobsters.

This is Sigourney Weaver's movie. She is outstanding and has a good script with which to work. She is smart, clever, and humerous in dealing with her denial and frequently talks to the movie audience to explain herself. Kevin Kline is a good match. The rest of the characters are more forgettable as individuals but add texture to the context. Unfortunately, I thought the ending was too facile, detracting from the film's impact. I haven't read the book, so I don't know if the finishes match.

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.

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.

Unless you have any expectations, it won't ruin your day but it won't make it either so you can skip it or watch it, won't make a difference. Story's pretty realistic, doesn't go out of it's way to move you or address the effects of alcohol initially. Sigourney Weaver who plays the main character well has a laissez-faire attitude about it and that's pretty much how you perceive everything, and when she finally breaks down and realizes she has a problem that's when it becomes more piteous and touching. She portrays the character well as her life is told from her point of view so you sorta always understand how she feels which makes that more climactic. It really feels like you're watching someone's everyday life. However for the most part it just felt like a well made lifetime movie and it took time to get to where it was going, I was only fully invested and engaged towards the end.

There were a couple funny and witty bits that I enjoyed but spread far apart. I was expecting this to be a romance heading in but that side is loosely done, it was either that or just about life in a small town of which it sorta explores.

I never like it when movies try to shove their intended message down your throat repeatedly throughout, which is why I dislike most 'Christian' movies for instance, but I feel like this needed a little more of that because it's very relaxed, for the first two acts it almost feels like an accessory to what's happening in the movie. I'd describe the plot as things happen and it's just all over the place. In the end I didn't really enjoy nor dislike it, I left the theatre like nothing just happened the past two hours.