A top form performance from Michael Keaton and a handful of great ideas help to elevate the otherwise predictable family drama Goodrich. Tapping into the deep reserve of comedic and dramatic chops that helped to make Keaton such an endearing and enduring on screen presence in the first place, writer-director Hallie Meyers-Sheyer’s tale of a floundering man in a time of turmoil feels overly familiar, but goes down easily enough.
Keaton stars as Andy Goodrich, a Los Angeles art gallery owner and workaholic who’s feeling a major financial crunch at the office. While his professional career is on the rocks, Andy finds out that his wife (Laura Benanti) has suddenly up and checked herself into a rehab facility to deal with an addiction to painkillers and alcohol for ninety days. Andy is stunned, never having realized that there were any problems in his marriage. In his wife’s absence, Andy has to care for their kids, nine year-old twins Billie (Vivien Lyra Blair) and Mose (Jacob Kopera). It turns out that he knows his kids about as well as he knew his wife, which is not very much at all, and Andy turns to his pregnant, adult daughter (Mila Kunis) from a previous marriage for support and guidance.
Goodrich taps into a variety of things Keaton has explored in his career up to this point: devastating life changes (My Life), the destructive nature of addition (Clean and Sober, Dopesick), fathers trying to raise kids on their own without any real parental skills (Mr. Mom), struggling artists (Birdman), the relentless drive to work to the detriment of one’s home life (Multiplicity), etc. Goodrich has a storyline that is specifically tailored to Keaton’s toolbox, and to her credit, Meyers-Sheyer (Home Again) never shies away from those comparisons. As such, Goodrich never strikes as a particularly ambitious movie in terms of plotting, but a very good one in terms of execution, especially with Keaton on hand to serve as a rock solid dramatic anchor.
The depiction of the titular character is somewhat original in the sense that Andy Goodrich isn’t a backwards thinking, culturally illiterate lunkhead. Andy is a progressive thinker in many respects, at least moreso than other characters who’ve been fit into similar templates. It’s clear that he has a heart and can be a good listener and sage advice giver when he’s giving his full attention to a situation. But it’s clear that Andy often gets lost in his own head and often makes poor decisions as to where he should channel his energies. He’s likeable and frustrating in equal measure, but also quite believably human thanks to Keaton’s performance. He’s precisely the kind of guy who seems well respected by colleagues and friends, but who has kids that resent him and has been through several major breakups in his life that were likely his fault.
Keaton has great chemistry with Kopera, Blair, and Kunis as his kids, with the latter turning in one of the best performances of her career as the conflicted daughter who never got to see dad’s softer side until she was an adult. Meyers-Shyer also peppers the cast with some seasoned pros that only elevate the material further, including Carmen Ejogo as the daughter of a deceased artist whose work Andy wants to showcase, Michael Urie as a fellow heartbroken single dad, and Andie MacDowell as Kunis’ mom. Everyone affords Meyers-Shyer’s material a great deal of respect and empathy, and the writer-director responds in kind by giving the cast plenty of space and character detail to work with, even in the briefest of parts.
It’s a nice balance of observant comedy and tearjerking drama that moves along with a great deal of familiarity, but some scenes in the early going come across as being truncated or underdeveloped, leading to a touch of narrative jerkiness. Goodrich is also one of those films that subscribes to the “when it rains, it pours” philosophy of plot escalation, with a whole bunch of bad and awkward things happening in quick succession to not only launch into a climax, but to also force a bigger emotional response than necessary. The final act of Goodrich is more manipulative and obvious than everything that came before it, but the heart of the film remains in the right place throughout. While the film’s sense of escalation is ridiculously condensed, the individual events that unfold are well done, and the film doesn’t suffer as a whole very much.
Goodrich will speak most openly to well-to-do people hovering around their mid-life crises, but Meyers-Shyer’s approach casts a wide enough net to feel inviting to anyone willing to give it a shot. It’s perceptive and classical at the same time, and functions as a great encapsulation of everything Keaton has done throughout his career. It’s a great performance from Keaton, maybe not his best overall, but certainly the most assured and confident he has ever looked playing a character. His whole career has seemingly led him to this point.
Goodrich opens in select theatres on Friday, October 18, 2024.
