Historically, Keanu Reeves fans can be split into two camps: well-read scifi fans whose brain chemistry was permanently altered by the first time they watched The Matrix, and thoughtful stoners who still haven’t lost the high of seeing themselves represented for the first time on the big screen in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Good Fortune, the new divine body-swap comedy, written, directed and also starring Aziz Ansari, may just become a new cult favourite for the latter group.
Reeves and Ansari play alongside Seth Rogen, Sandra Oh and Keke Palmer in a perfectly pitched picture that pursues questions about a person’s privilege and purpose. On the surface it’s a pretty obvious comedy – poor delivery driver gets the opportunity to have his life cosmically swapped with that of the man he’s dropping off takeout to, and then doesn’t want to swap back when the time comes. That’s clever, and we know that eventually he will come to realise that there was some benefit in his existence after all. The framework of the story is predictable, but Ansari’s writing gives it a sense of quirky existentialism and some decently clever comedy along the way.
Part of the magic in this film comes from the casting. Ansari plays the ‘hero’ of the story Arj, delivery driver turned rich guy, with Keke Palmer as his union-driving love interest. Rogen is the opposite, rich guy living a life of success that turns to strife as he must face Arj’s ‘real world’ life when the local busy-body angel Gabriel (Reeves) plonks him there. Oh wraps up the star-studded cast as the arch angel Martha, overseeing the ensuing chaos with divine patience. Each member of the cast is perfect for their role – from the whiny and opinionated Arj to the naive and bumbling Gabriel. Even the way that Rogen really embodies the selfish tech-bro rich guy vibe is pitched excellently, with the right amount of deliberate obliviousness to his own privilege to be villainous, but not too obnoxious that we as an audience can’t empathize with him when he is denied the ability to get back to his own life. Who wouldn’t want to get back to a life of bougie ‘business’ dinners and designer house slippers, right?
The other half of the success of this film is its timing. This is the right film for this moment in time. In a world where our humanity is being subsumed by large corporations and AI is taking the place of many people’s critical thinking skills. There is such a skill to writing a film that deals with bigger concepts without turning audiences off completely and Ansari’s blend of cultural critique with low brow humour really draws in audiences and holds them at the intersection of contemplation and comedy for the majority of the film. Again, this delicate mix just would not fly without a cast so well versed in seriousness and satire. The absolutely peak soundtrack does not go amiss either.
I do want to take a moment to recognise that while Ansari is a phenomenal writer and comedian, his return to the main stage with a film that deals so heavily with empathy and redemption does feel awkward. However, I don’t think that Ansari leans too far away from that idea, with both protagonists being at times seriously unlikable in moments, but ultimately achieving redemption in the eyes of the audience. There is a notable absence of discussion of the allegations of sexual misconduct.
That said, Good Fortune is a phenomenal film, if you can sidestep the Ansari awkwardness. It’s very much ready for the current zeitgeist and has a solid core of humanity that audiences will really resonate with.
9/10
