by John Tillyard, Contributing Writer
Allison (Florence Pugh) seems to have her life in order with her planned marriage to Nathan (Chinaza Uche). However, things turn dark for her and Nathan’s family when she’s involved in a car accident that kills Nathan’s sister, Molly (Nichelle Hines), and Molly’s husband. Allison struggles over the next few years. She battles with drug addiction, survivor’s guilt, and depression. Couple this with her complicated relationships with Nathan, her would-be father-in-law, Daniel (Morgan Freeman), and Molly’s now-orphaned daughter, Ryan (Celeste O’Connor). She finds her life spinning out of control.
Brought to you by director Zach Braff of Scrubs fame, the story follows many of the standard beats of a soap opera, with a complex web of relationships and plot threads. At the center of the events, Pugh does a great job selling a good range of emotions, and she again shows how versatile she is as an actress. Braff is also a good choice as a director with his track record in acting, and for directing TV shows with a significant element of drama. Some sites list this as a comedy and a drama, and I wonder if that’s accurate. There are funny moments, but more is needed to call this a comedy or a dramedy.
While a high element of melodrama across multiple storylines can undoubtedly work in a long-running TV show, this isn’t TV; it’s a film, and that’s the problem here. While there is an unmistakable main character that all the story’s events revolve around, there is no one clear plot thread or three-act structure. Instead, after a prologue that ends with the accident, there is a time jump of a year. The story then haphazardly dips around into about five or six story threads. Many of the threads are interesting, and I liked the directions they take with some of them. But with so many in a two-hour story, it all feels inconsistent. They’d have been better off cutting some minor story threads and making the story more straightforward.
It doesn’t help that lots of the drama uses ideas that have suffered from massive overuse in the past: a teenager getting in trouble at school, a drug addict doing anything to get more pills, a single parent figure feeling they don’t know what they are doing. I kept waiting for a moment where these storylines did something I’d not seen before, which made the way they told this story a bit different, but it never seemed to happen.
One thing that does seem a bit more original was that, despite the story being set in motion by the tragic death of two people, is that this isn’t a loss story. There isn’t much focus on grief or much talk about the two killed. It’s very much about a person dealing with being directly involved in the death of two people. The focus on characters coping with the loss of those killed is only on their relationship with Allison. There are no flashbacks to events before the accident, and the deceased characters have little screen time. As a result, we don’t miss them; we are just aware of other characters missing them.
The most exciting storyline is Allison’s relationship with Ryan, who lost her parents in the accident. At the time of the accident, Allison had never met Ryan, so their first meeting is naturally awkward, but they find they have much in common with time. Their chemistry is gratifying, and is aided by compelling performances from Pugh and O’Connor. Ryan’s arc has a confusing structure, with her first dealing with the fallout of losing her parents and now being raised by her grandfather Daniel. A reasonably standard conflict between a teenager and their stand-in parent involves Ryan having underage relations with another boy. This turn with Ryan’s character feels out of place; it doesn’t connect with the accident or Allison, and it makes Ryan seem unlikeable. It makes her later relationship and friendship with Allison seem jarring. She doesn’t feel like the same character seen in the first half of the story.
Another major driving force of the narrative is Freeman’s performance. Allison discovers she can relate to him because he has been through a similar phase of addiction. His portrayal by a big-name actor makes it difficult to become immersed in the character. It does feel at times like you are watching Freeman act. However, he sells the heavier, sentimental moments in the story, and has a couple of big speeches. You feel a strong emotional connection with his character during moments of confrontation. He acts as the story’s narrator, so he comes across like a guardian angel trying to do what he can to help Allison in the way she needs to be supported, as opposed to how she wants help. He knows what to do because, in his own words, “I was you.”
Overall the story gets bogged down in stereotypical melodrama in many places. Still, some standout performances by Pugh, Freeman, and O’Connor help sell these parts and make them compelling, even when covering overused tropes. The story gets lost in the jumble of far too many plot threads simultaneously, especially in the middle, which drags a little as Allison’s arc only develops slightly during this part. Pugh continues to showcase how much range she has, and I honestly can’t get over her talent and how many different accents she can do. At its best, this story is incredible, but this could have been a more satisfying experience if the narrative had been more streamlined and had less going on.
On a side note, what were they thinking in bringing this out the same week as John Wick: Chapter 4? The film wasn’t on in either of the movie theaters in my hometown. The closest place showing it on opening day was a 40-minute drive away.
Score: 7/10
A Good Person is currently playing in limited theaters
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