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Aziz Ansari's directorial debut, this fantasy film from comedian Aziz Ansari, is facing challenges in theaters. Many factors may account for the film's reception: Its generic name doesn't express the film's unique charm. Its screenplay is often moralizing and heavy-handed with the themes. The performances are flat and staged, as if the cast were reading lines straight from the page. And, it arrives during an era of financial anxiety and inequality, that may render viewers less open to a narrative that suggests wealthy individuals have all the benefits while the poor have heart.

However, here's what Good Fortune excels: It's original, daring, imaginative, often funny, and certainly timely. Plus, it offers a great the actor hangout experience.

Keanu Reeves as an Angel: A Familiar Portrayal

Personally, I've not considered Reeves a good actor. His flat speaking style and persistent expression of mild perturbation has consistently felt one-note, regardless of the wide variety of roles he has played over the last four decades of his career. Smart filmmakers have placed Reeves in roles where that stoic nature fits perfectly, including his early work to The Matrix to John Wick. Yet nearly all of these characters called for Reeves to seem tough, closed-off, or detached.

In Good Fortune, Reeves portrays Gabriel, a minor protecting celestial being tasked with looking after individuals who text when driving. The character's entire duty involves sitting in his vehicles and gently touching their shoulders as they're close to have an accident, warning them so the driver stop in time. But, when positioned overlooking the city, looking down on humanity similar to an alternative version of the angel from the director's classic movie the angel story, Gabriel gets ambitious. He desires to be a great guardian and rescuer of lost souls.

The Surprising Shift: Keanu Playing a Human

So, he reveals himself to struggling odd-jobber Arj (played by the director), who is living out of a vehicle and cursing his situation. The angel then swaps Arj with the life of extremely wealthy businessman Jeff (acted by the comedian). This idea behind the exercise is for Arj to understand the wealthy man's life has major downsides, and gratefully go back to his own life, much like the character from It's a Wonderful Life.

Issue is, Arj right away discovers that Jeff's problems (boring meetings, expensive pool-heater bill) are negligible and easily resolved with money. Arj further realizes that becoming rich provides limitless opportunities for pleasurable enjoyment. He shows no interest in going back to his own situation, and the angel is unable to compel Arj to go back. Then, more trouble arrives: For exceeding his duties and disrupting the balance of the world, Gabriel loses his position from his celestial role, and transformed into a mortal.

The Discovery: The Actor Grins

Personally, I remained never persuaded by Reeves as an angel who has big dreams and an intense desire to effect change. Reeves delivers a familiar somewhat stiff acting he has consistently providing for no less than the past three ten-year periods. Watching him as an angel who's just turned human initially, on the other hand, was a blast, due to something that really surprised me initially: It's an element different for the actor. Or to be precise, something from the past.

Early during the character's baffling experience being a mortal, staying with the wealthy character (whom the angel had swapped with Arj's precarious existence and underemployed situation), the character starts tentatively trying out human experiences like chewing and consuming meals. Then the actor smiles. Authentically, hesitantly, happily smiles. (This is far much believable than his smile on the promotional image, which looks digitally altered.)

The Reason This Smile Matters

The moment really surprised me to realize how unexpected and refreshing the smile was. When did we last audiences saw the actor grin in a movie where he was not showing malice, sarcasm, or bitterness? He probably attempts a smile somewhere in the recent ill-conceived Bill & Ted Face the Music, but I am not going to revisiting that mess to find out. The actor has remained typecast with serious, violent, broody, or just solemn characters for such a duration that merely watching Reeves grin seemed like observing a completely different actor.

While the plot goes on, the character ends up having to take a dishwashing job, a role that fails to provide sufficient to live on, and he begins chain-smoking out of frustration. Simply the image of Reeves in a disposable paper restaurant cap, with his recent trademark long hair tied in a plain ponytail, leaning against a wall and smoking a smoke, is worth watching. The dishwasher getup completely alters his face and body: Suddenly, the lean, well-dressed action star of his famous movies becomes gawky, ordinary, and a lot increasingly human.

The Pleasure of Watching Keanu Relax

The film is not consistently enjoyable to watch, especially when Ansari (who additionally wrote the screenplay) has to find believable reasons for {Ar