A GOOD PERSON, US 2023. Starring: Florence Pugh, Morgan Freeman, Celeste O’Connor, Chinaza Uche, Molly Shannon, Alex Wolff, Zoe Lister-Jones. Directed by Zach Braff. 129 minutes. Rated MA (Strong themes and drug use).
In this drama of heartbreak, grief, existential angst and finally redemption, this film portrays with gritty realism the nature of addiction and the havoc it can wreak. It is also a fine story that comes full circle as the better elements of human nature triumph over adversity and regret.
The film centres around Ally (Pugh) a happy, careless, recently engaged young woman whose momentary lapse causes her life to spin out of control. She is the driver in a car with her prospective in-laws as they head off to look at wedding dresses. She survives the crash that takes their lives and their daughter Ryan (O’Connor) is left orphaned.
A year later and Ally is living at home with her single mother, addicted to painkillers, no longer engaged, unemployed and in psychic pain. Her life is a wreck. Her downward trajectory is searingly portrayed with the way she and her mother come to blows and her desperation to get a “fix” in any way she can. She tries to scam the pharmacist and in a bar scene where she cannot pay for her own tequila she runs into some men she knew from school. They humiliate her when they force her to admit that she is now a junkie, a far cry from the glossy life she led before the accident.
Ally decides to attend an AA meeting and there she comes face to face with Daniel Adams (Freeman), the father of her former fiancé Nathan and the daughter Molly who was killed in the road accident. Aghast, she turns to leave, and in the bravest of actions Daniel reaches out to her and asks her to stay. These are the actions of the good person of the title; the good person who was a Vietnam vet and beat cop for 40 years; the good person who beat up his son; the good person who is now trying to raise a sexually precocious teenager, his grieving, angry, talented granddaughter, Ryan; the good person whose own father was an alcoholic; the good person whose model train hobby provides order and a certain omnipotence in a world that can be chaotic and uncertain; the good person who has flaws and failings but is doing his best in his own small sphere.
Daniel invites Ally to dinner and after an initial explosion and a flurry of four-letter words (these are littered throughout the film and for this reviewer become rather jarring when they are allowed to become the aural wallpaper) the two young women begin to warm to each other. Healing of sorts slowly begins to emerge. But this is never an easy thing and Ally and Ryan make mistakes along the way, even though their intentions are good. The party scene where Daniel, with a gun, is ready to shoot the man who has been with Ryan is taut and unlikely, but sometimes love acts beyond reason, especially when fuelled with anger and alcohol.
With her attendance at AA, we see Ally trying to improve. She admits she has lost herself in the abyss of addiction and wonders if she’ll ever have the strength to say no. She liked the fact that prescription pills made her blissfully numb. We see the Serenity Prayer recited at the beginning of each AA meeting and later Daniel speaks of God testing him. He does not want to waste his soul or for any soul at all to be wasted. He admits, this good person, that he could not handle his own grief at the sudden loss of his daughter. He admits that his life, like ours, is a work in progress.
The film ends on and with a positive note from the deceased Daniel, a part that Morgan Freeman plays with gravitas. Parts of the journey have been gruelling, but we see grit and grace prevail as Ally begins to smile again, Ryan loses her anger and Nathan is glad that he has been able to repair his fractured relationship with his father.
The acting doesn’t seem like acting. It is raw and honest, unflinching at times. A Good Person reminds us that our lives can take unexpected turns, but that with the right support, love and a big dose of intestinal fortitude, and faith, things can work out.
Kismet
Released 20 April