Fortune Favours the Rich

For a comedy, Good Fortune paints one hell of a bleak (and therefore, let's be honest, probably accurate) picture of the current iteration of the American Dream. Money begets money and a life of cold plunges, ridiculously expensive watches and "business meetings" that consist of all expenses paid meals with your mates. Meanwhile, hard work begets nothing but more hard work in a gig economy not even an Angel can help you navigate.

Said Angel is Keanu Reeves's Gabriel, a small winged minor deity who is in charge of preventing people from crashing as a result of texting while driving. He is desperate to make a more meaningful impact so, against the instruction of his boss, he decides to try and save a lost soul. He spots Arj (Aziz Ansari), a down on his luck, wannabe documentary maker, scraping by doing odd jobs via apps and sleeping in his car. When Arj is fired by wealthy tech bro Jeff for using the company credit card, he hits rock bottom and Gabriel attempts to inspire him by showing that even people like Jeff have struggles. To do so, he swaps the pair's lives which, unsurprisingly, backfires when Arj decides the life of luxury is indeed vastly superior to his own and refuses to switch back.

Ansari has two Emmys and a Golden Globe for his television work and there is a real sense of confidence to his feature film directing debut. He does a good job of capturing the gulf between Jeff's modern palace on the hill and the crowds struggling below. The script isn't the sharpest but is good enough for the talented cast to mine laughs from. Ansari's own performance is solid but he leaves the bulk of the humour to Reeves and Rogan, both of whom use their real-life personas to great effect. Much as The Matrix and John Wick franchises have made him synonymous with action, Keanu Reeves most natural role remains that of the mystical doofus. Watching Gabriel try to fit in with human life is consistently funny (a scene with him trying food for the first time is a stand out) but Reeves also imbues him with a certain shamanistic gravitas that makes you think the Angel may just have wisdom to offer mankind, and the role gives Keanu a chance to flex his comic timing. Meanwhile, Rogan brings humanity to privileged brat Jeff. He's a tech bro douchebag with zero understanding of, or interest in, how hard the masses have it but it's clear he is out of touch rather than cruel and you want him to improve, rather than just suffer.

The film does struggle a little with its rich/poor commentary. To its credit, it never tries to pretend that a person struggling at the bottom should be just as happy as those with no financial pressure (which was the de facto Hollywood message for a long time), but without positing any solutions or new angles it feels a bit like lip service. The resolution appears out of nowhere but, to its credit, it doesn't dilute the film's theme with happily ever after platitudes. The real issue is that, while the story is full of empathy, it just isn't angry enough to succeed as a satire.

So Good Fortune doesn't have the bite to make you really think about messaging, but it does deliver the goods as a mismatched buddy comedy and sometimes a laugh is good enough, especially when everyone involved is so likeable.

7 disco floors out of 10.

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