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Good Fortune, the fantasy comedy from comedian the director, has been facing challenges at the box office. Many factors may explain its reception: Its generic title doesn't convey the film's distinctive charm. Its script is often moralizing and heavy-handed with its themes. Its performances seem uninspired and staged, as if the cast were reciting dialogue directly from a script. Moreover, the film comes during an era of financial anxiety and inequality, that may render viewers not very receptive to a narrative which implies rich people have every advantages while those in need have spirit.

But, this is what the movie stands out: The film is unique, bold, creative, often funny, and undoubtedly timely. And, it provides a enjoyable Keanu Reeves hangout experience.

Keanu Reeves in the role of Angel: His Typical Portrayal

I have not considered Reeves to be a good performer. The actor's monotonal delivery and persistent expression of mild perturbation have consistently seemed limited, regardless of the wide variety of characters he's taken on during the last four decades of his career. Astute filmmakers have often placed him in parts in which his rigidity fits perfectly, including My Own Private Idaho to The Matrix to John Wick. Yet nearly all of those characters called for Reeves to seem hardened, closed-off, and removed.

In Good Fortune, the actor plays Gabriel, one low-level protecting angel assigned with looking after people that text when behind the wheel. The character's whole job involves sitting in his cars and lightly touching their arms as they are close to crash, alerting them so the driver brake in time. But, while positioned overlooking his domain, looking down upon the mortal world similar to an alternative version of a celestial figure in Wim Wenders' classic movie the angel story, the character gets ambitious. Gabriel desires to be a great protector and rescuer of lost souls.

A Surprising Shift: Keanu Playing a Human

So, Gabriel reveals himself to struggling odd-jobber a character (portrayed by Aziz Ansari), who's residing out of a vehicle and resenting his situation. The angel then exchanges Arj with the life of extremely rich tech mogul a character (acted by Seth Rogen). This idea of the exercise was for the character would realize the wealthy man's existence comes with significant downsides, and gratefully go back to his original life, similar to a figure in the classic film.

Issue was, the character immediately realizes how Jeff's issues (tedious appointments, expensive heating bill) prove negligible and readily resolved using wealth. Arj also realizes that becoming rich opens up limitless opportunities for self-indulgent enjoyment. He shows zero interest in going back to his previous situation, and the angel can't compel Arj to go back. Then, additional trouble comes: For exceeding his mandate and disrupting the order of existence, the character loses his position from his celestial job, and transformed to a mortal.

The Discovery: The Actor Grins

I was never convinced by Reeves as an angel who has grand dreams and a burning wish to make a difference. He turns in the same vaguely stiff acting he has consistently offering for at least the past three decades. Watching Reeves in the role of celestial being that has just turned mortal for the first time, on the other hand, proved to be highly entertaining, due to something which really surprised me at first: It's something different for Reeves. Or more accurately, something old.

Soon into the character's baffling experience being a human, clinging to Jeff (who the angel had swapped into the handyman's precarious life and underemployed status), Gabriel starts tentatively trying out human experiences like chewing and swallowing food. Then Reeves smiles. Genuinely, hesitantly, joyously beams. (This is a lot more convincing than his grin shown in the poster, that appears digitally altered.)

The Reason This Smile Matters

It truly surprised me to recognize how surprising and refreshing that smile was. When did we last audiences observed the actor smile in a movie where he wasn't showing malice, sarcasm, or resentment? The actor probably tries it somewhere in 2020's misbegotten Bill & Ted Face the Music, but I'm not going to revisiting that mess to find out. Reeves has remained stuck with grim, violent, introspective, or just serious characters for so long that merely seeing Reeves smile seemed like seeing an entirely new actor.

As the plot goes on, Gabriel ends up having to get a kitchen position, a role that doesn't pay enough to live on, and he begins chain-smoking due to frustration. Just the sight of the actor in a cheap plastic restaurant hat, with his late-career trademark long hair pulled back in an unglamorous bun, slouching against a building and puffing on a smoke, proves worthy of the price of admission. His kitchen worker attire totally alters his appearance and posture: Suddenly, the slim, well-dressed action star of the John Wick movies is awkward, ordinary, and much more human.

The Joy of Viewing Keanu Loosen Up

Good Fortune isn't always enjoyable to view, especially when Ansari (that also wrote the screenplay) must find plausible reasons for {Ar