Good Grief, A Beguiling Brief On Grief Betrayal & Reconciliation

Good Grief
Good Grief

Good Grief(Netflix)

Starring: Dan Levy , Ruth Negga, Himesh Patel, Celia Imrie, David Bradley, Arnaud Valois, and Luke Evans

Directed  by Dan Levy

Rating: ***

At first, Good Grief is about trying to  come to terms with  the loss of the love of your life, with the help of close friends. But then the film and its protagonist  Marc(Daniel Levy) have a change of heart.

Good Grief decides to go the heartbreak way , creating a kind of  beguiling pyramid of  grief and comedy seldom, if ever, seen before. This is a smart sassy and supremely sexy film. It gets there without storming into screenplay with  extraneous props.

For one, there is  no nudity or sexual intimacy except kissing,  in the proceedings. This in itself is unique  for a  film about same-sex relationships. We  can safely say Good Grief is the Disney  version of  a gay comedy. It is  good to see the same-sex couple being treated in a gender-free manner.

In fact early in the film we see the deceased gay man Oliver’s father giving a moving speech at his  son’s  funeral about never stopping his  son  from chasing his dreams. Having  gotten that  out of the way, the savvy screenplay(by Levy) moves towards  a kind of  liberating  libretto   on  infidelity and commitment.

The basic dramatic conflict here is between bereavement and betrayal. What to do when you get to know that the soul mate whom you were grieving for has  been cheating on  you? This is  not an easy theme to  put on film, especially if  the tone chosen is  lingering its lightness.

 Crucial to the efficacy of this comedy about grieving is  the central  performance and Daniel Levi(who has produced  the film) is just about adequate playing a very complex character which careens  from comedy to catastrophe  and  finally finds irs bearings.

Levi appears even more average than he  would  normally have  when pitched against his two-costars Himesh Patel and  Ruth Negga who are nothing  short of spectacular as   Marc’s best friends.It is  so wonderful to see Patel(who was rather underwhelming in Danny Boyle’s Yesterday)come  into his own  as Thomas,  Marc’s one-time lover and now best friend.The film’s best line comes from Patel who while describing Negga’s  character says, “Her brain is like those small pretty purses that women  carry which contains nothing.”

In fact the  conversations are flush with quotable  quotes.You may not find  the mode of  grieving to be your scene. But Good Grief never stops giving you  food for thought even at its lowest ebb.

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