Written by: Aziz Ansari
Starring: Seth Rogen, Aziz Ansari, Keke Palmer, Sandra Oh, Keanu Reeves
Rating: [3/5]
Often you hear the phrase that money will not solve all of your problems. A saying that has good intentions in what it seeks to communicate about other elements of life, but it fails to escape the reality that in the United States, money does solve many of those problems. While other nations have a higher floor, this country offers an uncapped ceiling that allows riches to provide a life that you cannot experience anywhere else. This idea gets at the core of the conundrum of Good Fortune, which attempts to provide an answer but does not completely succeed in doing so.
Completely down on his luck in his interpersonal relationships and financially, Arj (Aziz Ansari) fails to find any value remaining in his life. This presents the angel Gabriel (Keanu Reeves), the opportunity to step up in his role and try to provide Arj with the reasons why every life, including his, has so much value. He does this by offering to switch spaces with his rich boss, which does not go the way Gabriel initially thought it would.
There’s so much Good Fortune has going for it within its narrative that allows for much discussion. It presents a scenario of how much one’s life would markedly be improved if they had all of the money they needed to have their needs met and then some. Conversely with the switching of positions, it tasks an individual like Jeff (Seth Rogen), who lives a life of excess, puts him at the bottom, and asks him to try and survive just as Arj does. We see two sides of the same coin that invites plenty of dialogue, which leads to one of the film’s struggles. It does not have the firmest hold on its message, which leads to some of its lack of decisiveness.
This struggle gets coupled with the storyline of the angel Gabriel, portrayed by the always-great Keanu Reeves. Good Fortune establishes a hierarchy in the angel system up high, where Gabriel has a small set of wings and happens to be the guardian angel of texting and driving. While other angels have much cooler gigs that provide gratification, he just steps in to ensure drivers do not get into car accidents from being distracted by their phones. He seeks essentially to get a promotion by showing Arj he has a life worth living. It’s hard not to draw the obvious parallels to Clarence the angel in It’s a Wonderful Life, which I would imagine Ansari used as inspiration for the concept of Gabriel. While much happens when looking at Gabriel’s journey throughout the film, it does muddle the film a bit when it begins to get into these weird technicalities that ultimately does not mean much in the grand scheme of things.
At the core of this film remains the swap of Jeff and Arj as the former learns the hard way what working class individuals have to endure. Arj and then Jeff display how individuals can be left out in the lurch where they have to survive by the harsh nature of the gig economy that will not even pay them enough to have stable housing. This all compounds into other issues that Jeff’s journey displays well, especially as someone who claims they can start from nothing, even though he never once had to do that. On the other side, Arj has all of the money he needs, and this film walks the line of trying to show that money does not fix all problems but certainly fixes plenty of them. This demonstrates the comedy at the center and why Gabriel figured it would be easy for Arj to have the realization that many stories display of the individual in this position deciding that they would rather live a fulfilling life without all of the money rather than some empty life filled with riches. That argument has always been a bit silly, which this film does a good job at displaying.
Aziz Ansari’s return to the world of creation displays what makes him quite the talent. The man knows how to write an intriguing story and he demonstrates he has a good directorial vision in the way he presents Good Fortune. I still cannot state he makes for the most captivating performer to watch, especially in a lead role. His shtick works well in doses, but as a protagonist, the act gets old pretty quickly. It made me thankful to have Seth Rogen, Keanu Reeves, and Keke Palmer present in the story, who all do their part in front of the camera to make this story work and entertain.
Films with Josh 
