Good Fortune (2025)
With the modest success of The Naked Gun this year, hopefully momentum can continue to build for theatrical comedies with writer/director/actor Aziz Ansari's Good Fortune.
Ansari plays Arj, a man stuck in an
exhausting, soul-sucking collection of gig economy jobs, including a brief
stint as an assistant for venture capital bro Jeff (Seth Rogen). The angel
Gabriel (Keanu Reeves) is also unfulfilled in his job preventing people from
texting and driving. He wants to save a lost soul, so he oversteps his bounds
and allows Arj to trade lives with Jeff in an effort to show him even rich
people have their problems and heartaches. However, Arj ends up being happy in
Jeff's life and refuses to switch back.
As a comedy, Good Fortune is
more pleasant and fun than it is gut-busting, but it's still a breezy,
enjoyable film. Reeves is perfectly cast as Gabriel. His line deliveries and
vocal cadences can be detrimental in certain roles (Bram Stoker's Dracula,
Much Ado About Nothing), but they're definitely an asset here. There a
lot of lines in Good Fortune that are much funnier on screen than they
likely were on the page due to Reeves. He also has a natural sincerity to him
that makes scenes like Gabriel expressing childlike wonder over having a
hamburger for the first time work better than they likely would have with any
other actor.
This October is fairly crowded (by
2020s standards) with new theatrical releases, but Good Fortune is worth
checking out if you need a smile.
