A Good Person

Director: Zach Braff
Starring: Florence Pugh, Morgan Freeman, Celeste O' Connor, Molly Shannon, Chinaza Uche, Zoe Lister-Jones, Nichelle Hines, Toby Onwumere, Ignacio Diaz-Silverio, Oli Green, Alex Wolff, Brian Rojas, Ryann Redmond, Sydney Morton
Running Time: 129 min.
Rating: R

★★★ (out of ★★★★) 

Getting past the generic title and fairly familiar premise, there's a lot that works in writer/director Zach Braff's A Good Person. While it's been nearly twenty years since Garden State polarized moviegoers,  the former Scrubs star continues to take a thrashing for it, with detractors complaining he hasn't done enough differently behind the camera to change minds or win over the uninitiated. But despite preconceived notions, Braff clearly has a lane, knows the type of film he wants to make and remains competent at it. 

Preconceived notions aside, if the temptation exists to belittle this small-scale human drama as schmaltzy or Hallmark-like, it's really no better or worse than the similarly themed A Man Called Otto, if maybe even a little less sentimental. And the biggest reason why are the performances, particularly Florence Pugh's. The movie isn't exactly be a departure, but her lead turn is, further building on all the promise she's consistently shown since first breaking through.

Just as pharmaceutical sales rep Allison Johnson (Pugh) prepares to marry to longtime boyfriend Nathan (Chinaza Uche), a tragic car accident leads to the death of his sister Molly (Nichelle Hines) and her husband Jesse (Toby Onwumere). Allison, who was driving, suffers serious injuries as a result, leading to pain pill addiction and severe depression. Now a year later, she's broken up with Nathan and living with her concerned mother, Diane (Molly Shannon). As Nathan tries to move on, he and Molly's ex-cop father Daniel (Morgan Freeman) takes in Molly's teen daughter Ryan (Celeste O'Connor), who's acting out in school and still unable to process the loss of her mom.  

A strung-out Allison panics after accidentally encountering Daniel at a therapy group, but reluctantly agrees to stay at his urging, as the two form a tentative friendship. A recovering alcoholic with a shameful past, he still blames Allison for the accident but views helping her get clean as a challenge. Unfortunately, Daniel's problems with Ryan worsen as Allison's guilt and self loathing over the crash send her spiraling out of control. Until both come to terms with past mistakes, there's little chance they'll be able to piece back together the fragments of their shattered lives.

As opioid addict Allison, a profusely sweating Pugh, complete with a moppy haircut and baggy clothes, gives a performance that deserves far more attention than it's gotten. And had it come in any project other than one with Braff's name attached, everyone would probably be raving about it. Similar to her recent work in Don't Worry Darling, she proves capable of single-handedly carrying and elevating material that wouldn't connect with lesser actresses in those roles, even overcoming a few questionable creative calls along the way. 

While this doesn't have as many problems as you'd think, we know where it's going, leaving much of the heavy lifting to Pugh and Freeman.To Braff's credit, he doesn't get much wrong and just lets the them do their thing since they're great together. And Pugh's transformation from promising, optimistic pre-crash Allison into a flailing, self-destructive mess results in some memorable scenes, like a bar encounter with a pair of high school classmates or an extremely uncomfortable trip to the pharmacy.

The closer Allison and Daniel become, the worse their respective situations seem to get, with both petrified to face their demons head-on. She's definitely responsible for the accident and pushing Nathan away, but we quickly find out Daniel wasn't exactly father of the year. Fearing he'll fall off the wagon, there's good reason to believe the rage and pain has less to do with Allison's culpability in the accident than his regretful past. It seems like years since we've seen Freeman in a major role like this and he predictably knocks it out of the park, again enveloping us with his wise, all-knowing presence, only with some slightly rougher edges this go-around. 

Some will decry it as simplistically obvious symbolism, but there's a tidy subplot involving Daniel's train set that's effective in conveying the story's theme, largely because Braff wisely picks his spots and doesn't clobber us with it. The same could be said for Allison's singing, a detail enhanced by Pugh actually being a talented singer, making the character's aspiring musical career a better fit than it otherwise would. Of course, everything leads to Allison eventually coming face-to-face with the rebellious Ryan, with the latter finally getting her chance to confront the woman who inadvertently destroyed her world.

The complicated relationship between Allison and Ryan may be what the script handles best, with Celeste O'Connor bringing a surprising amount of depth to the angry teen. An understated Chinaza Uche is equally good as Nathan, dragged back into Allison's life a year after the tragedy while also confronting long unresolved issues with his father. And Molly Shannon again stretches her comedic muscles in a drama, stealing scenes as Allison's mom, who attempts to administer tough love in the face of a maternal instinct to smother with sensitivity.

Even as the story lands on its feet, a party sequence in the last act gets a bit overwrought in a film that mostly steers clear of theatrics. It's also sort of perplexing how little attention is given to the fact that Molly's husband died in the crash too, with Jesse's existence basically shoved under the rug. Still, for all that happens, A Good Person is almost downright restrained, resulting in what could be Braff's most assured directorial outing yet. And considering how far off the rails potentially melodramatic material like this can go, that in itself warrants a small round of applause.  

Oz: The Great and Powerful

Director: Sam Raimi
Starring: James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, Zach Braff, Joey King, Bill Cobbs, Tony Cox, Abigail Spencer
Running Time: 130 min.
Rating: PG

★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

When it's firing on all cylinders, Sam Raimi's The Wizard of Oz prequel, Oz: The Great and Powerful really works. And when it isn't, it doesn't. The film's a success whenever it's attempting to find inspiration from the classic 1939 MGM film and a failure when looking to the Star Wars prequels for it. While this isn't quite as flawed as that, it still earns that comparison through some clunky dialogue stretches and an overkill of unnatural looking CGI effects that frequently overwhelm the integrity of the production. It helps there's at least some narrative riches from which to draw, even if the filmmakers and Disney were legally and creatively hamstrung by having to adhere strictly to L. Frank Baum's Oz novels instead of the classic film, which Warner Bros. owns. But whatever issues exist shouldn't be pinned on James Franco, whose entire persona seems perfectly matched to the title character and his story arc, which is surprisingly well executed. And he doesn't even give the best performance in the film. Looking down the credits, it's easy to guess who does, but even that wasn't a given in this situation. Despite feeling almost achingly mainstream to a fault, nothing seems completely "safe" when you're messing with cinematic mythology. The movie definitely has problems, but still has enough virtues not to dismiss entirely.

In a clever visual callback to The Wizard of Oz, the movie opens in black and white in Kansas in 1905. Oscar "Oz" Diggs (Franco) is a struggling, small-time magician in a traveling circus known under his stage name, "Oz: the Great and Powerful." But he's hardly either, earning a reputation as a lying, egotistical charlatan who not only weasels and cheats his way through performances, but verbally berates his loyal assistant Frank (Zach Braff). He's also a serial womanizer, seducing a local girl (Abigail Spencer) helping with his show and rebuking his former flame Annie (Michelle Williams), who's now engaged to another man. But when Oscar escapes a precarious situation in a hot air balloon, a tornado transports him to the Land of Oz, where he's mistaken by a smitten Theodora (Mila Kunis) as the "Wizard" who's arrived to overthrow the Wicked Witch. As the opportunistic Oscar plays along with the ruse, Theodora's sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz) is more skeptical and has her sights set on destroying Glinda The Good Witch (also Williams).

Many would claim that the the movie's strongest section is the black-and-white Kansas prologue and when Oscar arrives in Oz and the picture fades into color, things just aren't as interesting as it flirts with being just another overstuffed spectacle. While it's tough to completely disagree with that, I'll at least give credit where it's due to Raimi for wisely cribbing that famous color transition from the 1939 classic, even if it can't possibly carry the same impact. As a setting, his version of Oz is problematic in exactly the same way most of these imagined movie universes now are with no one looking like they're actually a part of their environment. The effects resemble a video game and it's plainly obvious the actors are working against a green screen to the point that it almost took me right out of the story. Then after a while I got used to it, despite this being a classic case of more being less and material basically begging for simpler, more practical effects. If the intention was for Oz to look and feel like a real place, then it's fair to say that's the film's biggest failing. The one effect that undeniably does work is the China Doll character voiced by Joey King, which realistically resembles a porcelain doll and displays a whole range of childlike mannerisms and facial expressions that never look and feel anything less than human. Finley the monkey isn't as digitally well rendered but Zach Braff turns in some inspired vocal work.

Between the effects and some of the exchanges that initially take place between Oscar and Theodora, it's hard not to think of the Star Wars prequels with Mila Kunis acclimating herself about as well (or as poorly) as Natalie Portman did in that franchise, tripping over some clunky dialogue. Franco, however, has the right idea and plays Oscar in his classic James Franco laid back style in which he seems almost amused by the lines he's delivering. The result is almost comparable to his stint hosting the Oscars, except this time while awake. In this particular setting, that works and he certainly doesn't shy away from playing him as a slimy jerk with only a few redeeming qualities. It's kind of a great performance, and unlikely we we'd have the movie we do without it since he does get you to at least care about the character, regardless of his likability level.

The marketing team went to almost extraordinary lengths to conceal the identity of the Wicked Witch in what turned out to be the worst kept secret since the twist in The Crying Game. To be safe, I won't reveal anything other than that the actress is thanklessly asked to do a full-on imitation of Margaret Hamilton's iconic performance in the 1939 film and fares better than expected considering what she's up against. It's easy to argue that when that somewhat complicated transformation takes place and Glinda arrives on the scene the movie really starts to find its footing. But more accurately, it's the unmatched Michelle Williams, who's made her career starring in smaller, artsier projects that probably don't cost half as much as the catering on this one, coming to the rescue in a capacity we've rarely ever seen her in. It almost takes a bit just to wrap your head around it, but her crossover into "movie star" territory is as awesome as you'd expect it to be. Alleviating any potential concerns her skills would be wasted trying to elevate fluffier, more mainstream material, Williams speaks every line and delivers each gesture as Glinda as if she not only understands exactly what she's saying and doing, but actually believes it deep within her soul. Her warm embodiment of pure goodness and optimistic charm provides the perfect contrast to Franco's character, acting as his guide on the journey and bringing the story full circle. It's largely because of their scenes together everything eventually comes together in a semi-satisfying way.

Considering the legal restrictions, it's a miracle this film was made at all and a credit to the source material that it still very much feels like an Oz story, even with the absence of key elements we tend to directly associate with it. And yet it still kind of doesn't. I mostly blame that on the technology, which somehow looks worse than it did in 1939 because it looks better. If that makes any sense. With a relatively strong script and two great performances it's hard not to wonder how good this could have been if it wasn't Disneyfied within an inch of its life and the not so special effects didn't look so awful. But we already have that movie. It's called The Wizard of Oz. Williams and Franco are the primary reasons to see this but considering you can pretty much see any other project of theirs at random and extract greater value, that's just not enough. Of course, I'm not in the target audience for this anyway so it hardly matters. For all the little details Raimi got right, he got the big thing wrong. The sense of magic and wonder we all associate with Oz is at least partially missing because it feels like it was made by a committee more concerned that everything look and feel expensively fake. And that's just too big a big hurdle to clear when attempting to resuscitate a property with a history as substantial as this.         

The Last Kiss

Director: Tony Goldwyn
Starring: Zach Braff, Jacinda Barrett, Rachel Bilson, Casey Affleck, Michael Weston, Eric Christian Olsen, Marley Shelton, Lauren Lee Smith, Blythe Dannner, Tom Wilkinson, Harold Ramis
Running Time: 115 min.
Rating: R

*** (out of ****)

There's an agonizing choice and a deep, morally ambiguous dilemma at the center of The Last Kiss. It's so deep I'm not too sure the filmmakers knew what they had. The movie is brutally honest and risks going places most films wouldn't even touch. All the ingredients were there for this to go the distance and stake its claim as one of the year's best and it came closer than you might think. Unfortunately, amateur mistakes are made, and by Oscar winning screenwriter Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby, Crash) of all people.

Just when the movie seems poised to let the emotionally moving story take center stage, it pulls back and instead push useless supporting characters we could care less about in our faces. It's a shame because there were actually times during this film where myself and the person I was watching it with actually paused the movie to discuss the moral implications of what the main character was doing. It's not as cut and dry as it first seems. On the surface it appears it's just about a guy cheating on his wife, but it cuts deeper than that. It isn't necessarily clear he's making a big mistake. It's complicated. With all it's flaws, the film is probably still smarter than 90 percent of the junk that's put out there today. It's just by the end I was banging my head against the wall wondering what could have been.

Zach Braff plays Michael, a Wisconsin architect who seemingly has it all as he approaches his 30th birthday. He's got a beautiful girlfriend, Jenna (Poseidon's Jacinda Barett in the film's toughest part) a great job, and good, loyal friends. However, his whole world turns upside down when faced with the news she's pregnant since this is a guy who can't even bring himself to discuss the "M word." He tells her "I'll marry you when you can name five marriages that have lasted more than five years." She can't. When they visit her parents, Stephen and Anna (played exceptionally well by Tom Wilkinson and Blythe Danner) to deliver the big announcement they naturally think they're getting married. When they get the real news dad is thrilled but it awakens all kinds of crazy feelings and behavior in Anna, as she begins to examine her own thirty year marriage, which from her standpoint has been a complete disaster.

You can feel a crisis brewing on the horizon and the wedding of Michael's friend proves to be the catalyst when Michael encounters cute, flirty college student Kim (The O.C.'s Rachel Bilson making her feature film debut). What's interesting about this is although Kim comes on pretty strong and makes her intentions very clear from the get go, she isn't just some homewrecking vixen trying to destroy his relationship, though she is slightly manipulative and knows her power over guys. She gives him plenty of room to say "no" if he wants to but knows he can't because she senses he isn't completely happy. We sense it too. Something's missing. "Everything feels pretty planned out. There's no more surprises," he confesses honestly. As he closes in on thirty quickly this could be his last shot. He's scared and he gives in to temptation. Is this wrong? Morally most definitely, But is he making the wrong decision? This would be much easier if his girlfriend was a hen pecking ball and chain but she's not. She's fantastic, if a little too predictable, so it's almost unbearable for the viewer to sit back and watch him do this to her. This is what I mean when I say Jacinda Barrett has the toughest role in the film as Jenna. That part, in the wrong hands and not played perfectly with subtle nuances, would have caused the film to collapse. Too likable and Michael looks like a complete dirt bag for cheating on her. Too clingy and we don't blame him for cheating. She finds just the right balance and her performance is easily the best in the film.

Making this even tougher is that we get the impression if the two women ever met they'd get along great because they're actually quite a bit alike. In the looks department they're almost dead even with Kim having only maybe a slight edge. This reminds me of the urban legend that guys almost always cheat with a woman who's similar to the one they're with. That just may be true. In Michael's defense, who wants their whole life planned out for them? No matter how great his girlfriend is he's going to have to grow up and become a husband and a father...for the rest of his life. If that's not enough to send any guy flying into another woman's bed I don't know what is. This may be a desperate attempt to recapture his youth (one scene with him sneaking behind the trees waiting for Kim on campus looks particularly pathetic), but it's coming from an honest place. There are no responsibilities or strings attached with Kim, which has to count for something.

In some really smart writing, Michael's best friend Chris (Casey Affleck) is put into the unenviable position of helping him cover up the affair, although by this point it couldn't technically be considered one yet. What he does I won't give away, but let's just say it raises all sorts of conversations when the film's over as to what a true friend really is and the real definition of loyalty. When Jenna does eventually uncover it, what results is the most emotionally powerful scene I can remember seeing in a feature film this year. Michael has other friends struggling with relationship issues too and that unfortunately ends up being a major problem for the movie and sends the smart writing down the toilet.

Chris' wife Lisa (Lauren Lee Smith) just had a baby, is emotionally unstable and blames Chris for all of life's problem's. He's contemplating leaving her. Another friend, Izzy (an over the top Michael Weston) wants to quit his family career in the cheese business and is pretty much stalking his high school sweetheart, Arianna (Marley Shelton). Then there's Kenny (Eric Christian Olsen), a care free soul who's spending most of his free time having sex in many different positions and locations with a girl he just met at the wedding. When she suggests he meet her parents he freaks and plans to take a road trip in a van to South America with the guys. How four guys can take a road trip in a van from Wisconsin to South America is a question left unanswered. All of these characters seem like they were just thrown in the screenplay by Haggis to reinforce the idea of commitment phobia. None of them are there long enough for us to care about them, yet they're in it just enough to take away from the intriguing story at the center and annoy the hell out of us.

At one point the movie cuts away from an emotionally resonant scene with Michael and Jenna to show Kenny and his new girlfriend from the wedding spread eagle and naked, having wild sex on the living room floor. What's the purpose of this? This isn't Wedding Crashers. It has nothing to do with anything. This movie was adapted from the 2001 Italian film L'ultimo bacio so I'm assuming all of these characters were in that film in some form or another. If they were, creative license should have invoked and they should have all been taken out for the American remake. If they really wanted this movie to be about a bunch of guys facing an existential crisis as they approach thirty then they should have gone all the way and made that movie, not just lightly sprinkled the screenplay with underdeveloped characters in at their convenience. If they wanted to make this completely about Michael's story, which they probably should have, then there's no place for all this other nonsense. They should have made a choice. The presence of all these minor characters struggling with their relationship problems makes this project feel like a made for TV movie at times.

Of all the supporting characters, only two strike a real cord and directly relate to the central storyline. Those are Jenna's parents and Wilkinson and Danner bring a quite dignity to the roles that just works outstandingly. Wilkinson is kind of playing a variation on his character from In the Bedroom in that on the surface he appears cold to his wife, sarcastic and uncaring while the circumstances of his life situation force something deeper to come to the surface. Danner as Anna, frustrated with the lack of communication in her marriage, forces that something to come out of him in a tour de force performance that never goes too far over the top. She must also come to grips with an affair she had with a college professor (the great Harold Ramis, brilliantly cast against type as a ladies man), which she flaunts in Stephen's face. This all provides a nice counter balance to Michael's dilemma. After all, if he stays with Jenna they could end up exactly like them. This is the only supporting story that not only works, but adds to the themes of the film.

Interestingly enough, director Tony Goldwyn, who's best known as an actor (he was the villain in Ghost and played the creepy college counselor who hit on Katie Holmes in Abandon) states on the DVD interview the importance of casting the roles of Michael's friends. Why? Izzy seems mentally unstable and obsessive, the character of Chris' wife is a complete bitch, and I won't even get into Kenny and his sexual gymnastics partner from the wedding. All of this would be forgivable if it it didn't happen at the expense of the powerful dilemma at the heart of the movie and the character of Rachel Bilson's Kim. Just when we want to learn more about her all these morons take center stage and the movie discards her like a piece of trash, even filming a scene that really makes her look immature, stupid and even stalkerish. In a way, the movie ends up treating her worse than Michael eventually does. It's too bad because Bilson's performance is actually spot on for a girl her age in that situation.

Goldwyn enlightens us on all the details of Kim's life on the DVD's special features, letting us know her likes, dislikes, dreams and aspirations. It would be nice if we found this out in the movie. The strong central conflict would have been even stronger and we would have viewed Michael's decision as being tougher. I couldn't figure out if they did this because they didn't have enough faith in Bilson as an actress to give her more important scenes or they overestimated her and thought she could just convey all these emotions through her natural charm and ability. This is particularly problematic when Michael and Kim first meet at the wedding. Rachel Bilson is beautiful and likable I have absolutely no problem believing any guy would fall instantly in love with her the second they see her, but it would have nice if they didn't have her just throw herself at him in two seconds. They aren't randomly introduced or slowly get to know each other through casual conversation, she just decides this average looking guy who's ten years older than her is the guy of her dreams. It kind of makes her look like a desperate seductress and I don't think that's what the movie was going for. The one conversation they have, in a tree house, is a good one and they should have had more of those. I will admit the fact that I ended up caring that much about the character proves the movie must have done something right with her.

Luckily toward the end of the film the focus shifts back to the conflict between Michael and Jenna and the revelation of what he's done. He commits himself to making a choice and what happens at the end of the film is so surprising and I thought so smart. When Jenna's parents find out what he's done to her their reaction to isn't what you'd expect and it leads to the most interesting conversation of the film between Michael and Tom Wilkinson's Stephen. You think you have a good idea how he'll treat this loser who just destroyed his daughter’s life, but what happens ends up being smarter and far more satisfying.

I always thought the key to a successful ending of a film is if I'm left wondering and caring what happens to the characters after the movie is over. I did here. There has to be some degree of closure, but not too much. Issues are messy and aren't patched up nicely in real life so why should they be in a movie? Especially one with an issue that cuts as deep as this. I'm sure they'll be many who will try to compare this film to Zach Braff's 2004 cult classic, Garden State. That's not fair since Braff wrote, acted and directed that film whereas he just acts in this one. He does a fine job here as he really does have sort of an everyman quality that's relatable to the viewer and works well for the part of Michael.

After the incredible success of the Garden State soundtrack, Braff was asked to compile the soundtrack to this film and it's quite good as well featuring music from Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Ray Lamontagne, Aimee Mann, Athlete, Fiona Apple, Amos Lee and others. Garden State was pretty much hailed as a masterpiece. I thought it was good, not great. This would fall into a similar category but it's worth mentioning that in his last two film outings Braff has come very close to being in a great movie. More notably, he starred in two films that have something important to say about life and leave you thinking and feeling for a while after it's over. Garden State knew what it was about though, and stuck with it the whole time without adding needless distractions. I'm starting to wonder if this film would have been better had Braff written and directed it himself. The Last Kiss may be messy, but at least it's never uninteresting.