A Good Person: a movie review by Alex First
Broken, bruised and beaten.
I speak of Allison (Florence Pugh), a beautiful, talented and intelligent woman in her mid-20s after a catastrophic incident.
There is the before and after Allison.
The “before” is a person with joie de vivre and confidence, with her whole life in front of her.
She is engaged to be married to her soulmate, Nathan (Chinaze Uche).
Then a moment of distraction changes all of that.
Allison is addicted to oxycodone and her life has spiralled out of control. She falls deeper and deeper into the mire.
Self-loathing is her middle name.
Overtures from her mother, Diane (Molly Shannon) are summarily dismissed.
The man who helps rescue her has his own bucketful of pain.
A retired cop and Vietnam War veteran, Daniel (Morgan Freeman) was a physically abusive father, an alcoholic estranged from his son.
Now he is all at sea trying to single-handedly bring up his out-of-control 16-year-old granddaughter Ryan (Celeste O’Connor), who has lost her parents.
Allison and Daniel’s lives intersect and collide. Their anguish and that of their nearest and dearest are palpable.
While I could see and feel myself being pulled one way and then the other, I was nevertheless heavily invested in the journey that writer and director Zach Braff created.
I greatly appreciate the stellar talents of Pugh and Freeman, which are on display again here.
Their ability to be in the moment, to capitalise on emotional intensity is what elevates them to the highest echelon of actors.
As Allison, Pugh is vulnerable, lost and fearful. She just wants to find a way for her pain to go away, and it simply won’t.
Freeman plays Daniel as a man with profound regrets and frustration, someone who – like Allison – has to learn to live with the pain that he has inflicted.
This is a film that asks the question, how can one move on?
It is a tale that resonates because it is slice-of-life material. A split second can change everything. Many flounder. Some survive. Others don’t.
A Good Person is a film that is manipulative, but nevertheless deeply affecting.
Rated MA, it scores a 7 out of 10. Runtime: 128 minutes
