Hallie Meyers-Shyer directs a sweet comedy about family featuring Mila Kunis and Carmen Ejogo.
Plot: After his younger second wife leaves him and enters a 90-day rehab program, Los Angeles art dealer Andy Goodrich seeks out his adult pregnant daughter Grace for help with raising his nine-year-old twins.
Review: I love Michael Keaton movies. In the 1980s and 1990s, Keaton was the ubiquitous leading man in everything from comedies and dramas to his game-changing turn in Tim Burton’s Batman. In the early 2000s, Keaton’s roles dried up a bit, aside from voice roles in the Cars and Toy Story franchises. After his awards-worthy role in 2014’s Birdman, Keaton had a resurgence with acclaimed films like The Founder, Spotlight, and The Trial of the Chicago 7 to a very different comic book character in Spider-Man: Homecoming. After reprising his Batman role in last year’s The Flash and making his directorial debut with Knox Goes Away, he resurrected his iconic Beetlejuice this year and is following it up with Goodrich. Goodrich is not a remake or a sequel but does harken back to Keaton’s popular 1983 film Mr. Mom, in which he played a dad experiencing the life of a stay-at-home parent while his wife gets a high-powered job. Goodrich shifts the perspective to a man in his seventies experiencing a similar responsibility under different circumstances but benefits from Keaton’s wit, presence, and charisma despite a somewhat cliche script.
Goodrich centers on Michael Keaton as the title character. This sixty-something is awakened in the middle of the night to learn that his wife, Naomi (Laura Benanti), has entered a rehab program due to an addiction to pills, something that Andy overlooked. Naomi also tells her husband she is leaving him, sending Andy into a whirlwind of coordinating school drop-offs, pick-ups, playdates, parent-teacher conferences, and more. Andy tries to enlist help from his adult daughter, Grace (Mila Kunis), who is pregnant with her first child with her husband, Pete (Danny Deferrari). Andy must also contend with a massive downturn in profits at his namesake art gallery while navigating single parenthood at an age when most are retiring to spend time with their families. As typically happens with films like this, Andy comes to terms with his failures as a parent and a spouse while trying to find a path forward in his new world. Like writer-director Hallie Meyers-Shyer’s previous film, Home Again, Goodrich mines schmaltz and sentimentality to deliver a story from the Nancy Meyers playbook, which is apt as the Father of the Bride and The Parent Trap director is her mother.
As with many films that fall into this genre of comedy-dramas, Goodrich shows how out of his element Andy is with all of the parental responsibilities that he pawned off on both of his spouses. At the same time, he focused on running his art gallery. Now that he has no one to lean on, Andy realizes what he missed in the last four decades. Much of this is told to him directly by Grace, who feels mixed emotions seeing her absentee father, now a doting dad for her two much younger half-siblings. Andy also forges a friendship with Terry (Michael Urie), the father of his twin children, Mose (Jacob Kopera) and Billie (Vivien Lyra Blair). At first, Andy tries to muddle through the way he always does, and the precocious Billie calls him out at every turn. He relies on a babysitter, Tali (Noa Fisher) and Grace, but eventually, Andy must step up to be the dad he needs to be. At the same time, Andy tries to persuade Lola (Carmen Ejogo), the daughter of a famous artist, to allow him to show her mother’s art in a last-ditch effort to save his gallery. At first, the film seems to be trying to set up a romantic element for the film, but soon, the plot melds into a more formulaic tale of a guy realizing what he has missed and resetting his personal expectations and goals.
Make no mistake that Goodrich is intentionally designed to tug at the heartstrings. There are funny moments throughout the film, but Goodrich depends on the sentimentality of parents and grandparents as they reflect on their lives. This is absolutely the type of movie that screams mid-life crisis cinema while delivering a satisfying story. Yes, it is cliche, and yes, it is melodramatic, but it also rests on the shoulders of Michael Keaton and Mila Kunis. While Kunis’ role is far smaller than the trailers may have you believe, she is solid in all of her screen time, delivering several key monologues that call her character’s father out on his actions. Michael Keaton has always delivered roles like this, going back to films like Clean and Sober, My Life, and the aforementioned Mr. Mom. Keaton does not play Andy as a bad guy or someone with any malicious intent but who is truly a decent person inside that made some poor choices along the way. Goodrich also provides for a nice Multiplicity reunion thanks to Andie MacDowell briefly appearing as Andy’s first wife and Grace’s mother.
Writer-director Hallie Meyers-Shyer brings a maturity to Goodrich that goes far beyond her thirty-seven years. It evokes a solid portrait of a man later in his life coping with some life-altering milestones. Goodrich hits many expected beats we have seen countless times before, signaling some of the more emotional moments. However, they still hit thanks to the authenticity of Michael Keaton and Mila Kunis’ performances. I would be lying if I said I didn’t get a little choked up at the ending despite knowing exactly what the filmmakers were trying to do. But that is what makes movies like this enjoyable to watch: they hit your emotional pressure points, and you cannot stop yourself from feeling for the characters. I also applaud that despite Goodrich‘s happy ending, it does not get there through happiness.
Goodrich is a movie that would have played way bigger in theaters twenty years ago and is bound to find great success on streaming after it runs in theaters. Michael Keaton continues to show that he has the breadth to play a likable guy stuck in an unenviable position. There are no broad moments in this film that rival the vacuum cleaner scene in Mr. Mom or any of his big moments in films like Gung Ho, but even in his seventies, Keaton has a presence that makes you take notice. This emotionally-centered film is nowhere near the caliber or quality of Keaton’s more acclaimed films. Still, it is a solid and enjoyable movie that deserves a watch.
Goodrich is now playing in theaters.
