Certificate: 15 (strong language, drug misuse, domestic abuse references). Running Time: 129 mins. UK Distributor: Sky Cinema
WHO’S IN IT?
Florence Pugh, Morgan Freeman, Molly Shannon, Chinaza Uche, Celeste O’Connor, Zoe Lister-Jones
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Zach Braff (director, writer, producer), Pamela Koffler, Christina Piovesan, Florence Pugh, Noah Segal and Christine Vachon (producers), Bryce Dessner (composer), Mauro Fiore (cinematographer), Dan Schalk (editor)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
A young woman (Pugh) spirals out of control in the wake of a personal tragedy…
WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON A GOOD PERSON?
Florence Pugh’s stratospheric rise to stardom is a Hollywood story in and of itself; when she made her professional acting debut in Carol Morley’s The Falling, she was still a sixth form student studying her A-Levels, but as her talents and natural screen presence became wider viewed in films like Lady Macbeth and Fighting With My Family, she quickly became a household name, and now she’s an Oscar-nominated A-lister fluctuating between acclaimed independent movies and blockbuster entertainment.
Pugh is so regarded (and rightfully so) as a major talent, that often critics and audiences will declare her to be the best part of any film, even ones that aren’t quite as good. Such is the case with A Good Person, as Pugh is easily the most outstanding component in a film that is otherwise so-so.
Pugh plays Allison, a young woman who, when we first meet her, leads a happy life with her fiancé Nathan (Chinaza Uche), but a car accident – for which she was at the wheel, having foolishly looked at her phone for more than a few seconds – leaves Nathan’s sister and her husband dead, and her in an excruciating amount of pain. A year later, Allison is in a severe rut; stuck in a permanent state of grief and depression, she’s broken up with Nathan, unemployed and living with her mother Diane (Molly Shannon), and to make matters worse she’s become addicted to the painkillers that she no longer needs.
She eventually gains the willpower to attend a support group, only to find Nathan’s father Daniel (Morgan Freeman), a former alcoholic, also at the meeting, but the awkward encounter slowly evolves into a genuine connection as they help each other try to overcome their personal demons while also gathering the courage to forgive themselves and take responsibility for their past actions.
The film is both written and directed by Zach Braff, with whom Pugh was in a relationship until last year (she is also a producer on the film, her first such credit in her career), and from the way that the actor luminates and dominates every single frame she’s in, it’s easy to understand why the filmmaker was so taken by her. Pugh delivers a genuinely compelling and emotional performance that is as vulnerable and complex as most other roles she’s played, and it’s a testament to both her acting abilities and – to a point – Braff’s screenplay that her character still remains interesting and even likeable, even when she does and says things that would otherwise make audiences not care for her that much.
She is matched, though, by one of the strongest performances by Morgan Freeman in a number of years;. The Oscar-winning screen legend has appeared in a lot of movies over the last few years where you can tell he’s just there for an easy paycheck (need I remind you of how bad Vanquish was?), but here he really does put in the work to deliver a solid turn serves as a formidable reminder of why he’s such a beloved performer, and can still deliver a worthy performance when he wants to.
Pugh and Freeman are both on excellent form here, which makes it a bit of a shame that the rest of A Good Person is never better than just “okay”. As good-intentioned and well-performed as it is, the film often stumbles into conventional territory and becomes not only incredibly predictable in parts, but contrived to a point where you begin to have a hard time trying to make sense of the convenient moments of drama.
Braff’s screenplay follows a typical structure for dramas which deal with grief, addiction, past trauma etc, and while it’s not as cloying or as insultingly saccharine as a lot of other movies with similar themes – it’s even a little edgier than a lot of them, with some coarse language and grungy scenes of drug-taking, frank discussions about parental abuse, and even statutory rape littered throughout – it still feels incredibly safe, to a point where you can foresee how every message and telegraphed plot device will work their way into the story since it’s all so familiar by this point. It’s not that the messages and devices themselves are terrible, but it’s more about how ham-fistedly they’re executed here.
It is also a rather baggy script, as it will continuously find ways to pad out a lot of the drama without contributing much other than a somewhat bloated runtime of almost two hours. You’ll be following characters for a good while before they even cross paths with one another, in scenes which could easily have been trimmed down or removed altogether, and with supporting figures who barely factor into the main plot.
The script can also feel tonally inconsistent with itself, swinging from this quirky light-hearted dramady that’s in the same vein as Braff’s other films as writer-director, to a surprisingly intense would-be tearjerker where people are always on the verge of an emotional breakdown. Sometimes, it can all be in the same scene; at one point, Pugh is having a serious emotional moment alone in her bedroom – which, once again, the actor is selling incredibly well – but right outside her door Molly Shannon is going on a drunken comedic monologue about Shark Tank (the US equivalent to Dragon’s Den), which rages on in the background of what is meant to be a pretty heavy piece of acting from Pugh.
This could also boil down to Braff’s competent but unremarkable direction, which doesn’t feel restrained enough to rein in overbearing moments such as these, nor does it appear to have a concrete enough focus to draw you in as much to the situations that these protagonists have to overcome.
However, A Good Person remains watchable despite its rather blatant flaws, largely because these actors are so good at making even some of the bad dialogue and contrived plot points feel like award-winning writing. It’s not that A Good Person is one of the worst films of the year – hell, it isn’t even close – but it’s just wildly mediocre, boosted exponentially by some genuinely great turns from two screen icons of their respective generations.
SO, TO SUM UP…
A Good Person is a watchable but mediocre drama about grief that’s highly conventional and predictable, with director Zach Braff’s script feeling too baggy and tonally inconsistent to truly stick the emotional landing, but it’s elevated by a pair of genuinely great performances by Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman, who both deliver some highly emotional and complex turns that show why they’re among some of our brightest living stars.
