Recxpectations: Good Fortune

Well, to be fair, it’s not called “great” fortune. My TL;DR recommendation for “Good Fortune” is expect a so-so comedic morality play. It’s weird to say that a film doesn’t build off of it’s trailer but I feel like if you’ve seen the trailers, you’ve pretty much seen all the film has to offer. Basically, it’s not a preview as much as it is a good Cliff Notes version of the film. “Good Fortune” is not bad, it’s not good, it is incredibly forgettable.

EXPECT: A MORALITY PLAY BY A RICH GUY FOR RICH PEOPLE
Before the movie, Alamo Drafthouse showed an interview with writer-director-star Aziz Ansari and Aziz talked about how he was shadowing delivery drivers, delivered food himself, and interview all sorts of union reps and working class people. I’m not sure where that shows up in the film unless, beforehand, Aziz had literally no clue about what it was like to be poor. This is a fairly standard “It’s the friends you make along the way” morality tale with no real insight into the struggles of the working class besides "This sucks.” I don’t think working class people have much to glean from it and it definitely isn’t playing to the incel crowd since homeless Aziz Ansari lands Keke Palmer. It’s nice and all but it’s the kind of film that seems like it’s made for rich, older, and mildly out of touch Democrats to root for as they go back not actually doing much to change things.

DON’T EXPECT: A LAUGH RIOT
I’m not going to say that this isn’t a comedy and I’ll acknowledge that the best jokes were already shown in the trailer but beyond that, there aren’t really any comedic set pieces in this film. Despite the swapping of lives, which one would think would lend itself to some fish-out-of-water hijinks, the comedy is mostly dialogue-driven. The good moments had more to do with…

EXPECT: KEANU TO BE THE STAR
And not just because he’s the biggest movie star in the movie. Keanu’s character - the angel Gabriel - is the one who faces the biggest changes, the most discoveries, is the the biggest fish the furthest of the water. I can’t help but feel that Aziz’s character should have been the tertiary character while Keanu and Seth Rogen’s characters should have been more of the focus.

DON’T EXPECT: MUCH FROM KEKE PALMER’S CHARACTER
The romance angle is non-existent. I mean, there’s a relationship but it just happens out of nowhere, there’s basically no wooing - it’s Hello to Dating in the blink of an eye - and she seems like she’s mostly there as a plot device.

DON’T EXPECT: A ROUSING CONCLUSION
On one hand, I credit Aziz for not getting completely schmaltzy when things wrap up but, unfortunately, I don’t think he found a replacement. Personally, I thought the ending was unconvincing and fairly uninspiring, which is never great for a morality tale.