Good Fortune Parent Guide

Arj (Aziz Ansari) can’t find stable employment, so he’s stuck in the gig economy handling random tasks and deliveries while working part time at a hardware store, all while living in his car – which has just been towed. He’s on a trial period as a personal assistant to tech bro Jeff (Seth Rogen), but that’s not going to last long. Luckily for Arj, his guardian angel has decided to step in. Unluckily for Arj, his guardian angel is Gabriel (Keanu Reeves).

Although Gabriel is a kindhearted, well-intentioned angel, he’s operating above his pay grade trying to fix Arj’s life. Gabriel is only supposed to save people who text while driving, not rescue lost souls. So when he decides to show Arj that money won’t solve all his problems, he simply swaps Jeff’s life with Arj’s – not realizing how hard it’s going to be to convince Arj to give up this new pampered existence for the grind of his former life. And Jeff isn’t exactly thrilled with the situation, either.

A sweet little comedy about income inequality, homelessness, and the gig economy sounds like a hard balance to strike, but Good Fortune carries all that weight with surprising grace. Ansari and Rogen are both well cast and earn some good laughs, but Keanu Reeves is improbably funny, and his character’s innate sweetness makes him an absolute scene-stealer for the whole movie. Luckily for us, he has a lot of scenes.

Despite the movie’s many good points, it’s problematic for a family audience, due to the frequent profanity – right around 30 f-bombs, or one every three minutes on average – and a few scenes in which the characters taking hallucinogens, sometimes unwittingly. A few mild accidental injuries, minor drinking and smoking, and brief sexual references round out the concerns for parents.

I expected to enjoy Good Fortune, but I was surprised by how well it manages complex themes in a short runtime without feeling overly preachy or dragging horribly between scenes. It’s a well-managed, well-told story with a fun cast and some good jokes, and it isn’t unspeakably profane or crude, which is more rare than you might think. While this production isn’t a great choice for underage viewers, I think adult audiences will have a good time. I did, anyway.

About author

Keith Hawkes

Keith Hawkes graduated from Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada with a degree in English and History. His interests are movies, American literature, science fiction, almost every kind of music, and museums. He enjoys criticizing films for fun - although he's okay with being paid for it.