A GOOD PERSON - Mark Reviews Movies

A Good Person, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

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Review by Mark Dujsik | March 23, 2023

A lesser—or, at least, different—version of the story told in writer/director Zach Braff's A Good Person would focus on how impossible this situation seems, how much conflict must exist between these characters, and how everything is leading to some point of no return for people with an irreconcilable connection. In avoiding the obvious and what might appear natural to certain people, some might scoff at the optimism Braff puts on display in this film, but that, along with a trio of really fine central performances, is its greatest strength. The film assumes that hope and empathy are—or should be—our natural reflexes, and it's difficult not to be moved by that kind of inherent—and, hopefully, truthful for most people—confidence in humanity's better angels.

Despite the sunny description of the basic attitude here, this is a story about deep pain, grief, and regret. It follows a young woman, whose life is turned upside-down by a momentary lapse in judgement, and an older man, who loses some of the only family he could claim to really have on account of that incident. With a couple of twists of these circumstances or a more cynical outlook, this tale could easily take a much darker turn, but let's not consider such options at the moment.

The young woman is Allison (Florence Pugh), whose life seems perfectly on track to a promising future. She works for a pharmaceutical company, but it's just a stepping stone—a way to make and save some money for a home and a career that doesn't involve what she sees as selling her soul. More importantly, Allison has just become engaged to Nathan (Chinaza Uche), who loves and supports her.

Everything looks perfect, and indeed, it's about as close to that state as such things can be. One day, Allison takes Nathan's sister and the sister's husband on a trip from New Jersey into New York City to look at wedding dresses and attend a Broadway show. Allison looks down at the GPS on her phone for a second or two, and suddenly, a construction vehicle has entered the lane just ahead of her car.

When she wakes up in the hospital, Allison learns that her future sister-in-law and the husband were killed in the collision. A year later, she's no longer engaged, living with her mother (played by Molly Shannon), and still taking opioids—not because of any physical pain, but because they numb the awful reality of what happened.

The other side of this story involves Daniel (Morgan Freeman). He's the father of Nathan, who had stopped talking to his old man before the incident, and the grieving parent of the only child who was still a part of his life. Now, he's the legal guardian of the late daughter's own daughter, a promising but troubled teenager named Ryan (Celeste O'Connor). Daniel wants what's best for her, but she appears to have given up on her future plans.

The paths of Allison and Daniel, along with Ryan, will inevitably cross, of course, but wisely, Braff isn't necessarily in a rush for that to happen. He spends time watching as Allison struggles with her addiction to prescription pain medication, arriving at a heartbreaking scene in which she, trembling in rising humiliation, has to admit her problem to a couple of old classmates who are willing to help her score something. Braff gives us a real sense of how loving Daniel is of Ryan, how helpful he tries to be to his granddaughter, and how completely unprepared he still is for the particular challenges of raising a teenager—especially one who is in such obvious emotional pain and almost seems to have decided to let her life slip by her.

By the time Allison and Daniel do reconnect after more than a year, there's a real sense of how much these characters have lost, how much more they could lose, and how easily any new problem or complication could push them over the edge. When the two find themselves at the same Alcoholics Anonymous meeting completely by chance, Allison runs, but Daniel stops her and literally reaches out his hand to her—not in forgiveness, but in an act of mutual understanding for the difficulties of addiction she has endured, as well as the tough road of recovery she has ahead of her.

The rest of Braff's film is filled with similar moments of tenderness and compassion—little ones, such as an outstretched hand or a smile, and much more significant ones, such as lengthy and honest conversations about the kind of guilt over the past that each of them shares. Their respective struggles continue, of course, because addiction is no simple fix, Daniel knows more about the incident than Allison is willing to admit, and Ryan—who becomes just as important a part of this story as the other two—wants to treat Allison one way but believes her mother would want her to behave in another.

The writing here is sharp in how much Braff communicates about the trickiness of this situation, without losing that hopeful edge and, until a rather unfortunate and convoluted sequence in the third act, without indulging in melodrama. The actors ground all of this particularly well, too. Pugh is great as someone constantly on the edge of either some kind of breakthrough or self-destruction, and Freeman offers a delicate performance of a man haunted by and trying to overcome the remains of his demons. O'Connor plays a tough role quite well, and any awkwardness in the character's shifts are more the result of the necessities of Braff's screenplay.

Whatever issues with certain developments might exist, A Good Person looks for the best in its characters. In finding that, it creates an infectious and genuinely touching spirit of good will.

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