Reeves, Rogen, and Ansari quest for wealth in this Capraesque comedy
Once again this year, audiences are invited to see a new comedy in theaters! Good Fortune is high-concept, taking the sentimentality of ‘30s and ‘40s era Frank Capra films (It Happened One Night; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; It’s a Wonderful Life) and injecting a comical “what if” scenario and a modern-day setting. The film is also writer, actor, and comedian Aziz Ansari’s feature-length directorial debut. Using Good Fortune’s twist on fate and wealth, Ansari primarily explores the demoralizing nature of gig work and how it perpetuates economic inequality. Good Fortune doesn’t shed new light on existing problems, nor does it offer a realistic solution, but the film’s blunt jokiness and the unexpectedly winning trio at the film’s center give it wings.
Ansari plays Arj, a documentary film editor in Los Angeles whose lack of consistent work forces him to take on one insulting gig job after another, not earning enough to even scrape by, resorting to sleeping in his car and utilizing public utilities. Meanwhile an angel, Gabriel (Keanu Reeves), whose job is to prevent texting-while-driving accidents, wishes to curate more meaningful life-altering changes among humans. Despite objections from his angel boss, Martha (Sandra Oh), Gabriel sees Arj as a lost soul in need of saving. After Arj engages in a brief work stint as an assistant to a rich VC mogul, Jeff (Seth Rogen), Gabriel sees their “haves and have-nots” scenario as an opportunity to intervene. Gabriel transfers Arj into Jeff’s life in order to show Arj that wealth isn’t everything. The problem is, Arj loves having Jeff’s life and doesn’t want to go back.
Ansari was smart to leverage Reeves’ secret sauce as a comedic actor, which has not been utilized enough recently (aside from a delightful cameo in 2019’s Always Be My Maybe, his work in the 2020 reboot, Bill & Ted Face the Music, and a vocal performance in last year’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3). Reeves’ deliberate line delivery is hilariously charming and punctuates Gabriel’s ignorance, making the angel’s loss-of-innocence arc all the more relatable and comical. Rogen and Ansari are comfortably performing in their wheelhouses, playing a lovable jerk and a wise-cracking underachiever, respectively. The winning combination of Rogen and Ansari with Reeves, and also adding Keke Palmer into the mix, playing Elena, Arj’s colleague at a hardware store trying to get the store employees to unionize, is surprisingly suiting and compelling. Good Fortune could have used one or two more scenes about the angels, however. How the angels organize and operate seemed like a great opportunity for a few more minutes of jokes and sight gags.
Good Fortune’s release would have been more foreboding ten years ago, when the gig economy was gaining traction. The film’s humor and character portrayals are easily recognizable: issues with food delivery services, unfair rating and payment systems, etc. We already know these issues exist, but watching Rogen, Ansari, and Reeves point it out is no less entertaining, and sometimes the script provides just enough inventiveness (or crudeness) to catch us off guard. Similarly, we can’t wait for the 1% to have come-to-Jesus moments or company investors to have idealistic epiphanies to solve economic inequality. Good Fortune’s resolution doesn’t propose anything new or realistic, but the film shouldn’t have to. Elena’s push for unionization and the realizations that Arj eventually comes to about life’s struggles and values give Good Fortune enough heart to land its soft but hopeful messaging. Considering the state of the world, some hopeful messaging is very welcome.
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Good Fortune opens in theaters on Friday, Oct. 17th.
