Review: In 'Good Fortune,' director-star Aziz Ansari wavers from funny to overly serious, but Keanu Reeves' portrayal of a hapless angel is heavenly
Good intentions alone cannot save “Good Fortune,” a comedy-drama directed, written by and starring Aziz Ansari that tries too hard to be funny and meaningful at the same time.
Ansari plays Arj, an unemployed documentary editor who struggles to make it in the gig economy in Los Angeles. He works in a big-box hardware store, where he befriends Elena (Keke Palmer), a coworker who is trying to unionize the store’s employees.
Arj lives in his car, which is also his workspace for his other job, as a driver and body-for-hire for a delivery app. We see him waiting for cinnamon rolls at a trendy bakery, only to learn the bakery has sold out for the day — and the person who ordered his services cancels payment, even though Arj spent much of his day in line. What’s more, the bakery saved some rolls for one of its rich investors, a venture capitalist named Jeff (Seth Rogen).
On one call, Arj ends up cleaning out Jeff’s garage — and does such a good job that he convinces Jeff to hire him as his assistant. The job puts enough money in Arj’s pocket to let him get a cheap motel. But when Arj tries to impress Elena with dinner at a fancy restaurant, one recommended by Jeff, Arj uses Jeff’s company credit card, and Jeff fires him over it.
We, the audience, aren’t the only ones watching Arj’s miserable life. So is Gabriel (Keanu Reeves), an angel who sees Arj as a lost soul — and Gabriel wants to save him. However, as his boss angel, Martha (Sandra Oh), reminds him, Gabriel isn’t that high up in the angelic organizational chart. Gabriel’s assignment is to nudge people who are texting while driving, so they don’t get in accidents.
Gabriel, on his own volition, decides to show Arj that his life isn’t so bad – by have Arj live Jeff’s life, so he can learn being rich isn’t all that great, either. Arj, however, rather likes being a rich guy in a big house and every comfort available to him. The pleas from Jeff, who’s now living Arj’s paycheck-to-paycheck existence, aren’t enough to compel Arj to go back.
Watching “Good Fortune” put me in mind of “Sullivan’s Travels,” Preston Sturges’ 1941 comedy masterpiece about a Hollywood filmmaker (Joel McCrea) who decides to give up making light-hearted popcorn movies to create a serious movie about the plight of the common folk. The filmmaker learns, through his misadventures, that the common folk want to see a movie that’s fun and diverting, to make them forget about their plight for a couple of hours.
It turns out the comparison isn’t all in my head. A day after I saw “Good Fortune,” I saw Ansari was a guest programmer for TCM, showing films that he said he connected with while making his movie — and the first one up was “Sullivan’s Travels.”
Where Ansari goes off the track with “Good Fortune” is that he’s trying to make both movies — a light comedy and a serious movie about how the working class gets screwed over — and it never gels convincingly on either front. The jokes are muted by Ansari’s sober tone, and the message is undercut by the manic edge.
Some of the problem is that Ansari is unsubtle as a performer — though he’s Daniel Day-Lewis next to Rogen, whose tech bro arrogance here feels only a degree or two off from his other roles, notably his work as the conniving Hollywood executive on Apple’s “The Studio.”
The upside to “Good Fortune” is Reeves, whose deadpan portrayal as a hapless — he uses the term “dumb dumb” — angel, discovering the joys of milkshakes and psychedelics, earns whatever laughter this movie generates. Now if Reeves could find a guardian angel who could nudge him into better projects.
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‘Good Fortune’
★★1/2
Opens Friday, October 17, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for language and some drug use. Running time: 98 minutes.