An inherently funny premise with a lot of heart behind it.
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Good Fortune has an inherently funny premise: a guardian angel (Keanu Reeves) decides to meddle in the life of Arj (Aziz Ansari) – a gig worker who struggles to find worth in living – and makes him swap places with venture capitalist techbro Jeff (Seth Rogen), only for Arj to realise that being rich is pretty great.
The movie also has the good fortune of having a superbly likeable cast that also includes the likes of Keke Palmer and Sandra Oh, with the only weak link being director-writer Ansari as the main protagonist, never mustering the gusto needed for the performance of a broke guy enraged at the state of where his life is going.
Despite this, Good Fortune fortunately has the good grace to never turn any of its characters into pure caricature. Even the out-of-touch techbro comes across as being gracious and forgiving.
There were so many directions a comedy like this could go, but it’s just self-aware enough to never push anyone into overwrought parody. Arj never turns into a one-note villain, despite toiling away his life in service of detached, wealthy elites like Jeff. Gabriel the angel finds more pleasure in forming friendships and tacos than other vices, which could have been the easiest arc to write for an innocent-angel-turned-human to fall into.
Feel-good, sincere, wholesome, never quite laugh-out-loud funny but more thoughtful-funny, with a touch of class commentary that manages to win some heart by the end.
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