Good Fortune Review: Keanu Reeves Steals the Show in Aziz Ansari’s Mixed Bag of Supernatural Comedy
It’s not a Good Fortune for Arj, played by Aziz Ansari, who also tripled in writing, producing and directing the supernatural comedy. At least from the earlier stretch of the movie, it focuses on his struggle to make ends meet working in the ever-volatile gig economy. And more so in today’s job market. Such a subject matter certainly hits hard, making his character relatable. Arj is an aspiring documentary filmmaker, but it looks like a pipe dream until now.
Instead, he has no choice but to settle for a series of lowly-paid jobs, from working at a hardware store to delivering food and performing various tasks via an app called Task Sergeant. And yet, for the long hours he has put in day and night, his compiled earnings aren’t enough to round up into a living wage. This is especially true with Arj sleeping in his car parked near the restaurant.
He meets Elena (Keke Palmer), who also works at the same hardware store, and they get along pretty well, despite not sharing the same sentiment about forming a work union. I enjoy the on-screen chemistry between the two, and it helps that Palmer brings her effortless charm to her supporting role. The story soon introduces Jeff (Seth Rogen), a tech mogul, who lives a luxurious and carefree life. Fate somehow brings him and Arj together when the latter shows up for a task to clean out Jeff’s messy garage.
After managing to complete the job well and being given a high rating, Arj takes his opportunity to offer himself to work as his personal assistant. Jeff agrees to give him a probation period to see how it goes. At the beginning, everything goes well for Arj until a simple mistake costs him his job. And Jeff doesn’t hesitate to let him go, even when Arj has been doing outstanding work all the while.
Good Fortune isn’t just about Arj and his predicament since the movie also brings in Keanu Reeves, who plays an angel. A budget guardian angel named Gabriel, to be exact. Reeves’ role starts like an extended cameo, who shows up every now and then, whose job consists of saving lives for those who love texting and driving. Despite primarily looking like he’s playing a second fiddle, I can’t help but notice that Reeves’s deadpan charm fits his angel character just right that he even steals the show in this movie.
Then comes the story’s turning point when Gabriel made a mistake in granting Arj to live Jeff’s life, while the latter lives like the former. Gabriel’s initial plan is to want Arj to know that living in Jeff’s shoes isn’t as rosy as he expected it to be. As a result, Gabriel gets demoted, and this allows his character arc to involve a fish-out-of-water story of what it’s like to live as a human. The part where Gabriel gets to enjoy a hamburger for the first time is one of the best scenes in the movie.
The comedy is pretty much a hit-and-miss affair, and the story could have used a tighter focus, instead of framing it like a loosely-connected vignette spread into three characters’ points of view (Arj, Jeff and Gabriel). I was expecting Ansari would delve deeper into the subject matter surrounding the capitalist inequality in its gap between the rich and the poor, rather than just glossing it over in a surface-level storytelling. The pacing also tends to be slacking, despite the movie clocking in at a modest 97 minutes. Still, for a first-time feature director, Ansari does a decent job in Good Fortune amidst the movie’s few shortcomings.
