A movie like Good Fortune has a lot of good intentions but it never fully seems to succeed at its premise. Written and directed by Aziz Ansari who plays the protagonist, Arj, it presents a harsh look at reality for many people who are just one or two missed paychecks away from being kicked out of their homes.
Rent is going up as people are finding their wages and hours both cut yet they are being expected to take on more tasks at work at the same time. And worse, no one seems to really care both in real life and in this movie. People treat it more as if it’s a flex they work multiple jobs or some silly endurance contest.
Arj has been unable to find work in his field as a documentary filmmaker in L.A. So, he’s forced to work gig jobs along with the small hours he picks up at a hardware store. Worse, he’s been stiffed out of tips and gets poor ratings from obnoxious people. I’m almost certain a man refusing a tip to him because the restaurant only gave the customer one container of ranch is based on a real story. Working in food services and customer services in general brings the worst of the worst.
Arj strikes up a relationship with a co-worker, Elena (Keke Palmer) who is trying to unionize her co-workers. They are both being watched over by a guardian angel, Gabrielle (Keanu Reeves), who is stuck himself on the low-level of angels as he’s mostly in charge of stopping people from texting while driving. His supervisor, Martha (Sandra Oh), feels he still needs to work his way up to a higher level of angels who get to make bigger changes in people’s lives. Yet Ansari does nothing with the higher choir of angels aside from briefly showing them in one scene.
Things begin to look up for Arj when he meets Jeff (Seth Rogen), a venture capitalist and man of wealth and privilege who lives a life of excess in a mansion overlooking the greater L.A. area. Yet, Jeff is so spoiled and inept he can’t even do simple things like make his own appointments for leisurely activities. Jeff, himself, says all he does is go on vacations and attending simple Zoom meetings. His parents and grandparents were rich and that’s how he’s been able to make so much money.
In many ways, Jeff seems to be a parody of Gabe Plotkin, the real life person he played in Dumb Money. Plotkin, who was portrayed rightfully inept himself,
|is the founder of Melvin Capital that found itself in the middle of the Game Stop scandal of 2022. I also can’t put it past that Rogen, who was born in Canada, is mocking the dudebro frat boy mentality that seems to exist now with these venture capitalists, most notably Elon Musk. They don’t wear business suits because they’re rarely even in an office.
When Andrew Carnegie was bought out by JP Morgan, he used the money to open libraries across the country. Jeff owns a high-price Ferrari he can’t drive because he’s never learned how to drive manual. He blows $250,000 on a Rolex that he just puts in a drawer never to touch or even see again. Jeff Bezos used all his money to go into the upper stratosphere.
Arj is living in his car and getting little sympathy from other working class people who can only tell them of their own financial problems. Ansari is showing us how the goal of the rich and wealthy is to keep us fighting amongst each other rather than organize and turn against the wealthy. Elena’s whole unionization barely functions as a subplot and you can pretty much guess where it goes. Also Ansari hints that POC are fighting more of a upheaval battle, which they are.
Arj makes a mistake one night while taking Elena out to a fancy restaurant where the bill totals over $300. He goes there on Jeff’s advice who admits is unaware of Arj’s financial situation. So, Arj foolishly uses a company credit card to pay and Jeff fires him without wanting to hear him out saying he doesn’t want it to get too complicated.
And that’s when Gabriel presents himself to Arj explaining to him that he does have a lot of good things to live for. This offers some of the movies’ few good laughs as Arj sees that he and Elena are having to live with her family after his car got repossessed and he’s expected to use a pee bottle while working as a delivery driver for an Amazon-like company. But they eventually move to Texas but even that has some problems. It works because Reeves delivers it with enthusiasm as he’s not fully aware of how bad things look for both Arj and Elena.
So, he thinks Arj wouldn’t like living Jeff’s life and makes the two swap places. And here’s where the movie loses what could’ve been a great opportunity. Jeff sees how the other side live but mostly whines about wanting to return back to his old life. But since Gabriel is stripped of his wings for overstepping his duties, he can’t stop Arj from texting while driving so Arj goes into a coma.
There are some great moments of Gabrielle as a human realizing things aren’t so easy as Reeves’ gee-golly-gee attitude turns to bitterness as he’s sees how badly he’s being paid as a dishwasher. But Jeff is never really a likeable character even when he’s trying to be sympathetic. I think a lot of people while find one of the movie’s biggest unintentional laugh is how little Jeff does to help Arj when things go back to normal.
Also, many people will find Arj somewhat unrelatable since he’s basically trying to be a documentarian living in L.A. which has a high cost of living. Most famous people don’t live in L.A. or even southern California because it’s so expensive. Also being a documentarian takes a long time to conduct interviews and research. You either have to have a lot of money already in the kitty or do regular jobs. We know little of Arj’s past aside from him feeling embarrassed to tell his father he’s living out of his car.
If he worked for a company/business that collapsed or laid him off, we might feel more sympathy for him. But it just comes off as he put himself in a position where he knew the odds were stacked against him. Elena’s story as a retail worker trying to unionize would make a bigger story as some people live under the idea those who work in hardware/retail stores should just find better paying jobs. And that’s mentioned here by an ignorant rich person. But someone has to do these jobs.
It’s because this is Ansari’s first directing gig that makes the movie fall apart. There’s a lot going on here and I feel Ansari is more concerned about sending a message than telling a story. It’s also hard to sympathize with Hollywood filmmakers themselves who have notoriously worked their cast and crews on long hours. Also, actors of high level have stand-ins who are there as directors and camera people doing blocking and lighting.
As people question GoFundMe campaigns for the families of Eric Dane and James Van Der Beek, most actors like barely make enough of their acting roles and have to work regular jobs. It’s been part of movie trivia that Kevin Bacon had to skip the premiere party of National Lampoon’s Animal House because he was working as a waiter and either couldn’t get off or had to go into work early the next day. Van Der Beek himself said he got screwed over residuals for Dawson’s Creek.
The overall message of this movie is too serious to be in a feel-good comedy that never makes you feel good because you know everything will be wrapped up at the end rather unrealistically, even for a movie where a guardian angel comes to life
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 