Like its protagonist, Goodrich is flawed but filled with great heart
There’s a certain kind of dramatic family comedy that used to pack cinemas and be a staple of home video, only to now be found relegated to streaming services, if they get made at all. Nancy Myers, director of films like Something’s Gotta Give and It’s Complicated was once the queen auteur of the genre, but has not had a film made since 2015. It is perhaps fitting that her daughter, Hallie Meyers-Shyer, should take up the mantle with her debut film Home Again released in 2017. Her sophomore film Goodrich which she has written and directed is of a piece with her mother’s work, but with its own distinctive style and tone. While it is unlikely to make a huge splash in our post-MCU world, the movie is a gentle, warm, and deeply moving tale that packs an emotional punch.
Michael Keaton plays Andy Goodrich, a once successful gallery owner who is now struggling to make ends meet. His life as he knows it starts to crumple when his wife tells him she has an addiction to prescription pills and has checked into rehab for the next 90 days. Left in charge of their nine-year-old twins, Goodrich grapples with how checked out he must have been to not notice what was going on in his own home. Making things more complicated is Grace (Mila Kunis), his adult daughter from his first marriage who is six months pregnant and harbouring deeply complex feelings towards her father. This is a true character piece with no urgent, driving narrative force behind it; rather the film is a series of small moments in Andy’s life as he deals with the competing demands for his attention, and is forced to ask himself what really matters.
There are few actors capable of shouldering a film like this, with just the right amount of pathos, and Michael Keaton is undoubtedly one of them. Andy is the pinnacle of a flawed protagonist, and it would all too easy for him to be unlikeable and unsympathetic, yet Keaton’s performance is layered with a raw authenticity that endears Andy to the audience and has you rooting for him all the way. He is ably supported by Kunis who balances the complexity of the father-daughter relationship with nuance and great heart. The rest of the supporting cast also shine in every scene they have, including Vivien Lyra Blair and Jacob Kopera as Andy’s young, precocious children. Michael Urie is a particular standout as Terry, another single dad who Andy meets at school drop-off one day and forms a connection with. It is a testament to both the cast, and Meyers-Shyer’s script, that every character is given real moments in the film, and there isn’t anyone who is painted as a villain. Even when bad choices are made, each character is treated with great compassion, making this is a loving, comforting watch.
It could perhaps be speculated that the insight in the script comes from personal experience; Meyers-Shyer is roughly the same age as Grace in the film, and the daughter of successful, artistic, divorced parents herself—her father is Charles Shyer, writer and director of films like Father of the Bride. Whether semi-autobiographical or not, Meyers-Shyer’s intimate directorial style enhances the material and puts the emotional truth of the material at front and centre. This is not a film without its flaws—it’s a little too slow and a little too long, and relies on a few well-worn tropes—but it has an earnestness throughout that is compelling and charming. There really are not too many films like this made any more, and Goodrich’s story about a man who has made some bad mistakes but is now genuinely trying his best in challenging circumstances feels like something special. It is a film that calls for understanding and forgiveness, particularly for the people who we love the most. It is genuinely funny, and genuinely touching; I hope Meyers-Shyer makes many more films with the same amount of heart.
Reviewed by Sarah Kwong
More News
