Goodrich (2024)
Michael Keaton finds himself as he gets lost in life
A gentle piano opens the film over the sparse opening credits before a black screen, and an unseen telephone begins to ring. It’s the dead of night and now seen for the first time “Andy Goodrich” (Michael Keaton) scrambles to the side of the bed, the bright lights of the city in the distance illuminating his distress and a rising discombobulation as the female caller on the other end of the line states they are in rehab, for 90 days, and now pacing up and down an opulent and luxurious bedroom Andy simply cannot believe what he is hearing as the caller continues, stating calmly they “lead two separate lives”. Andy, freaking out and refusing to accept the realisation of the situation offers to collect the female caller and any and everything to resolve the circumstances that have shaken him from his slumbers before the caller shouts loudly “I’M LEAVING YOU”. As the simple opening credits continue:
“GOODRICH”
is displayed in the centre of the screen, the bright lights of the city in the distance a sparkling backdrop.
We cut to a profusely apologetic “Grace” (Mila Kunis) who’s late for her pregnancy scan and as she climbs aboard the waiting table her telephone continues to ring. This is constantly ignored even though the display reads “Dad” and shortly she is given the reassuring news that the sound she can hear is “a perfectly healthy heartbeat”. Now answering the call, the camera cuts repeatedly back and forth between a daughter and a panicked father driving to the rehabilitation clinic. Andy cannot believe she’s not shocked with the news he’s relayed before Grace responds
“Who doesn’t know that their wife is addicted to drugs?”
Andy arrives at what he calls a “country club” before parking the car and walking into reception. His angst ridden mood rising, he forces a smile at the disarming receptionist who returns his distant smiles but refuses to confirm whether his wife is here before stating that she’s left instructions that she doesn’t want to see him should he travel here. His anger rising, Andy exclaims loudly “I WANT TO SEE MY FUCKING WIFE” at which point his telephone rings and in the absence of his wife, their twin children need to be urgently picked up from school.
Returning home with the children, Andy lies, and lies awkwardly and repeatedly over and over as to where their mother is before demonstrating he’s clearly a fish out of water in his own home as he remonstrates and admonishes the children for their etiquette at the dining table as he fusses over a vast food takeaway, their unknown (to him) allergens and has zero knowledge as to where anything is within his own vast kitchen. A quick cut takes us to later in the evening and an awkward, off kilter conversation with a babysitter who exclaims to Andy’s dismay that “everyone knows” his wife’s drug habit but clearly, not him.
We cut to Andy arriving at the art gallery he owns and which bears his name. Graffiti adorns a sculpture at the entrance, another reason to raise his ire. Fake smiles are raised to greet a small array of staff before he enters his office and his worst fears are once again realised, “in black and white”, his art gallery and business is struggling and facing closure…
Written and directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer in her second stint in the director’s chair following 2017’s Home Again, I loved Goodrich from the second I started watching until it’s bittersweet denouement. A truly fantastic Michael Keaton (he does discombobulated, angst ridden, on the brink of breakdown so well doesn’t he?) heads a small cast including Mila Kunis, Kevin Pollack and Andie MacDowell in a cameo that really sums up this beautiful film entire. For it wrong foots you in so many scenes into believing there’s a simple explanation and happy ending to every area of Andy’s life when maybe there isn’t. The smile before the storm. The sweet before the bitter. The heartwarming before the heartbreak.
Put simply, Andy loses everything before realising he had everything else he ever needed. He just didn’t know it.
I loved this film and from the very second Michael Keaton appeared on screen, I knew I would.
Highly recommended.
Thanks for reading. Here’s a selection of my self-published books available via Amazon.
"Tales I Tell Myself" - link to Amazon
"Diary from the 2022 FIFA World Cup" - link to Amazon
"Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - link to Amazon
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
I saw the trailer for this last week, or the week before, and looked at my wife and said, I wanna see that.