A Good Person

Two deeply compelling characters desperately needing to find atonement after a devastating tragedy ruinously reconnect in Zach Braff’s four-director feature A Good Person. Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman headline a strong cast in this deeply moving drama about addiction, coping, and grief. Pugh’s emotionally charged performance in this demanding role—one even more emotional and intricate than any of her previous lead roles like Lady Macbeth and Midsommar—deserves some Oscar consideration for her lead performance. But with a late March release date and mixed reviews, it will be a very tough battle for her to achieve the buzz, depending on how the rest of the year goes.

Let’s not forget that the film is distributed by MGM, which hasn’t done the best as of late with acting campaigns as they dropped the ball in nominating Alana Haim for Licorice Pizza and Danielle Deadwyler for Till. Nevertheless, her performance is affecting and emotionally complex as it deals with the timely issue of opioid addiction and the stigma that is built around it. Despite some shmaltzy moments and contrivances, A Good Person is undeniably poignant and soul-crushing, a film that will make you laugh and cry thanks in part to Braff’s genuine writing and the strong performances across the board from the cast.

Braff once again serves both as writer and director, A Good Person is less stylized than his debut feature Garden State and far less self-indulgent than his sophomore film Wish I Was Here, A Good Person carries on similarly to Garden State, as it takes place in New Jersey and deals with grief and reconnection. The film also becomes an exploration of redemption and coming to terms with forgiving oneself for one’s guilt.

Courtesy of MGM 

The film stars Pugh as Alison, a jubilant young woman who is very enthusiastic about her current life. She has a solid job at a pharmaceutical company that helps people with skin diseases, and she is recently engaged to Nathan (Chanaza Uche). She also enjoys playing the piano, and both her and Nathan’s futures seem bright together. You can sense two people deeply in love at their engagement party, where Allison plays the piano for Nathan’s family.

Sadly and tragically, Alison’s fate changes as she is driving her would-be sister and brother-in-law to New York City to help her pick out a wedding dress. Alison looks at Google Maps on her phone, and in just a few moments, she finds herself colliding with a construction vehicle. Alison wakes up from a severe concussion and is in pain, only to discover through Nathan and her mother, Diane (Molly Shannon), that the passengers in her vehicle were killed in the collision.

Courtesy of MGM

A year passes, and we follow the teenage daughter of the couple that was killed in the accident, Ryan (Celeste O’Connor), who now lives in the custody of her grandfather, Daniel (Freeman), who is introduced in the beginning of the film once they get the tragic news of the accident. Daniel is also the father of Nathan, who blames the accident entirely on Allison. Struggles continue on, as Ryan has a lot of personal struggles after losing both her parents. She finds herself getting into fights at school during her soccer games; she finds herself meeting with older guys on dating apps; and Daniel doesn’t know how to raise a daughter with his old-fashioned ways. Meanwhile, Alison is still traumatized as she struggles to emotionally and physically recover from the accident. She sleeps all day and rests on the couch, as her doctors just cut off her oxytocin prescription. Diane is beyond frustrated with Alison’s lack of motivation, and she ends up flushing the remains of her pills down the toilet.

This leads Alison down a desperate path of attempting to get more pills, which includes embarrassing herself at a pharmacy, attempting to blackmail an old friend, and encountering old classmates from her high school at a bar she once looked down on. In one of the film’s most effective scenes, one of the classmates humiliates her into saying “I’m a junkie” in return for getting a fix. It’s one of the film’s most unsettling moments as we realize Alison has lost all self-control and another layer of herself. As Alison becomes more desperate, Daniel, a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for 10 years, often gets the urge to drink again as he has difficulties raising Ryan. He finds calmness in his model train set, one that is modeled after the town and mirrors his own life events, which range from his first date to his time coming home from Vietnam. The train set becomes his coping mechanism for the grief he has recently endured; he’s also a widower.

Courtesy MGM

There are a lot of emotional truths in the film that reveal affliction and human pain. While the screenplay dives into many things, including addiction, Braff also explores family dynamics and relationships. It relies too much on contrivances, and it certainly has some mawkish moments that could easily be compared to a Lifetime movie about addiction. However, there are some very wrenching moments that prevent it from becoming too cloying. The performances by Pugh and Freeman really hold the material together, and Pugh is very committed to the role. Her struggle with addiction never feels overwrought, and she delivers enough raw emotion to the role that it feels genuine without ever resorting to overacting. The most forced part of the writing is how Daniel and Alison encounter each other again once Alison seeks help at a sobriety recovery meeting, which Daniel just happens to attend to maintain his sobriety. Braff does a superb job directing Pugh and Freeman in their scenes. The bond between them is undeniably compelling, and it’s sprinkled with many sincere and poignant moments that also become deeply intricate. All of the characters across the board are given nuance by the splendid cast.

While Zach Braff likes to overstuff his films with many emotions and side stories, many are engaging while others are frustrating in places. One particular subplot involves a subplot of Ryan and Alison ending up at a party after a concert. It’s a very forced scene that should have been cut during the early drafts, let alone on the cutting room floor. Outside of these uneven detours is a pensive study of mourning and forgiveness. Braff makes another step towards being an adequate filmmaker, while Freeman and Pugh evoke enough empathy and sympathy for their troubled characters. It is their scenes together that lift A Good Person away from its flaws and into a heartfelt human story about human frailty.

A GOOD PERSON is now playing in theaters.