A GOOD PERSON – Review by T.J. Callahan
A Good Person : Amor Fati, Love One’s Fate
A Good Person is about a good person involved in a tragic incident and the actions she takes to feel good about herself again.
Florence Pugh is Allison. A woman with a promising career, loving fiancé, and supportive family and friends. Life is good for this person, until she finds herself the sole survivor of a car accident that kills her soon to be sister and brother-in-law. Pain and guilt consume her. The former pharmaceutical salesperson turns to her own product. Just before her life totally spirals out of control, Allison finds help and hope where she least expects it, from her former future father-in-law, Daniel. Morgan Freeman is Daniel. Also a good person, but with a broken heart and a motherless teenage granddaughter to raise. He blames Allison for the fatal crash, but eventually realizes they both can help each other.
A Good Person was written and directed by Zach Braff with his former girlfriend and star, Florence Pugh, in mind. His film is a two hour well intentioned therapy session. It’s about overcoming grief, redemption, starting over, and staying in control. It also bogs down after an hour, but like the lessons in the film, redeems itself in the final act.
Most of that is thanks to Flo and Mo. Braff was extremely lucky to have this pair bringing his story to life. Pugh can do no wrong these days. She swings for the fences and connects with every script. And then there’s Freeman. Enough said. When he waxes poetic, he’s riveting. Another good person to have in A Good Person is Molly Shannon as Allison’s mother. Too bad she didn’t have a bigger part.
Overall A Good Person is a good film. It gets a 7 out of 10. My husband Ricky had 1 1⁄2 👁‘s open.
***A side note, that has nothing to do with my rating of the film, but was blatant enough that I took notice: WTF with all the F words in movies these days?! If I could go back and rewatch A Good Person again just to count how many times the F word is used I’m pretty sure it would be in the triple digits. I am not a prude. I’ve been known to talk like a sailor, but “f$ck” is used like “like” now, you know. The word is so desensitized, Morgan Freeman is saying it to his granddaughter and she’s saying it to him!
