🔗 Share this article

Aziz Ansari's directorial debut, this fantasy comedy by actor the director, is struggling in theaters. Several factors may explain the film's performance: Its generic title fails to convey its film's distinctive appeal. Its script is often moralizing and obvious regarding its messages. The acting are flat and staged, as if the cast were reading lines straight from a script. Moreover, it arrives at a time of financial uncertainty and inequality, which could render audiences not very receptive to a narrative which implies wealthy individuals have all the benefits while the poor have heart.

But, here's what the movie stands out: The film is unique, daring, imaginative, frequently funny, and certainly relevant. And, it offers a great the actor hangout movie.

Keanu Reeves as an Guardian: His Typical Performance

I have never considered Reeves to be a good actor. His flat speaking style and persistent look of slight perturbation has always felt one-note, despite his wide range of roles he has taken on over the last four decades of his career. Smart filmmakers have often placed him in parts where his stoic nature fits perfectly, including My Own Private Idaho to The Matrix to John Wick. But nearly all of those roles called for Reeves to seem hardened, distant, or detached.

Throughout the film, the actor portrays Gabriel, a low-level guardian angel assigned with looking after people that use their phones when driving. His entire duty involves sitting in his vehicles and lightly touching their shoulders when they are close to crash, warning the person in order that the driver brake before impact. But, when positioned high above his domain, looking down on humanity like an alternative interpretation of the angel from Wim Wenders' classic movie Wings of Desire, Gabriel gets ambitious. Gabriel desires to become a great protector and a savior of wayward souls.

The Surprising Shift: Keanu as a Mortal

So, he presents his presence to down-and-out handyman Arj (played by the director), who's living out of his car and resenting his situation. Gabriel proceeds to exchanges the man with the life of stupidly wealthy tech mogul a character (acted by Seth Rogen). This point behind the experiment was that the character to realize Jeff's life comes with significant downsides, and thankfully return to his own circumstances, much like a figure from the classic film.

Problem is, Arj right away realizes that the mogul's issues (tedious meetings, a pricey heating bill) are negligible and readily resolved using money. Arj also sees that being affluent provides endless opportunities for pleasurable enjoyment. The character shows no desire in returning to his own life, and Gabriel can't compel Arj to return. Then, more bad news arrives: Because of overstepping his duties and disrupting the balance of the world, Gabriel is fired as an celestial role, and transformed to a human being.

A Discovery: Keanu Reeves Grins

Personally, I remained never convinced by Reeves playing an celestial being who has grand aspirations and an intense desire to effect change. He delivers the same vaguely constipated performance he's consistently providing for at least the past 3 ten-year periods. Viewing him as an celestial being that has just turned mortal for the first time, however, proved to be a blast, for a reason which really astonished viewers initially: It's an element new for Reeves. Or more accurately, an aspect old.

Soon during the character's confusing experience being a human, staying with Jeff (who Gabriel exchanged with Arj's hand-to-mouth existence and underemployed status), the character begins tentatively trying out everyday activities like eating and swallowing food. Then the actor grins. Genuinely, cautiously, happily beams. (It's far much believable than his grin on the poster, that looks digitally altered.)

The Reason This Smile Matters

It really took me aback to recognize just how unexpected and refreshing the smile was. When did we last audiences saw Keanu Reeves smile in a movie where he was not showing ill will, sarcasm, or resentment? The actor probably attempts a smile somewhere in 2020's ill-conceived the sequel, however I'm not going to returning to that mess to confirm. Reeves has remained stuck with grim, violent, introspective, or simply solemn roles for such a duration that just seeing him smile seemed like observing a completely different performer.

As the plot goes on, Gabriel ends up having to take a dishwashing job, which doesn't pay sufficient for survival, and he starts chain-smoking due to frustration. Just the sight of Reeves in a cheap paper restaurant hat, with his late-career trademark long hair pulled back in an unglamorous ponytail, slouching against a wall and smoking a smoke, proves worthy of watching. The dishwasher getup completely changes his face and body: Suddenly, the slim, well-dressed physical powerhouse of his famous films is awkward, unglamorous, and a lot increasingly human.

A Joy of Watching Keanu Relax

Good Fortune is not always fun to watch, particularly when Ansari (that additionally wrote the screenplay) must create plausible explanations for {Ar