Directed by: Aziz Ansari
Starring: Seth Rogen, Aziz Ansari, Keanu Reeves, Keke Palmer, Sandra Oh
Good Fortune begins with a lone angel named Gabriel (Reeves) standing on a high-above building overlooking vast Los Angeles. This isn't City of Angels, although Gabriel, a "low level" angel who is in charge of preventing people from texting and driving, wants to do more to help humanity. He focuses his energies on Arj (Ansari), a college graduate and out-of-work documentary editor who holds multiple demeaning jobs and lives in his car whose life feels meaningless to him. Gabriel wants to show Arj that his life is meaningful. How? By having him switch lives with his former boss, tech bro Jeff (Rogen), who fired him as his assistant for using the company credit card to buy his date dinner.
The plan backfires when Arj learns that money buys happiness for him, and Jeff doesn't seem to mind being Arj's assistant all that much. In the meantime, Gabriel loses his wings and is forced to become human, where he holds multiple jobs and becomes a chain smoker. The goal is to restore Jeff to his former life, have Arj understand that his life is worth something, and have Gabriel regain his wings. This is It's a Wonderful Life with one additional character. It would be like George Bailey switching places with Mr. Potter. Do these things happen? Of course, but it happens in a series of awkward transitions where the screenplay kicks in because it's getting late in the picture.
Good Fortune is sweet and has a heart, and the three leads are likable. One fault is that Jeff, even though he's rich and has a penchant for switching between saunas and plunges in ice-water bathtubs to improve circulation, is generally a nice guy. Yes, he gets to see how the other 98% of people live, but does he deserve it? One improvement would have been to make him an insufferable prick. I liked Ansari, who wrote and directed, as a down-on-his-luck guy who just can't get ahead. We sympathize with him, and then there's Reeves, whose character oozes sincerity and kindness. We enjoy their company, though the movie they're in is uneven.
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