★★½ (2½ out of 4)
Keanu Reeves as a guardian angel named Gabriel? I can see it and so can you in “Good Fortune,” a bright if broken comedy now in theaters to mark the feature directing debut of the stand-up comic and sitcom star Aziz Ansari (“Parks and Recreation,” “Master of None”), who’s also the writer, producer and star. Yeah, he’s overworked and it shows, but the sharp edges he brings to this sendup of gig economics still cuts through the filler.
But back to Keanu for a sec. Even in action-heavy bloodbaths like “John Wick” and “The Matrix,” Reeves showed a core of tenderness that drew us to him. The same goes for the “dum-dum” easy touch angel he plays in “Good Fortune.” It’s just like Gabriel to fall for a sob story.
No matter that this mixed bag of satire and silliness bungles the job, Keanu Reeves, in angel drag, flies above the idiocies and inconsistencies to bring us a good time. Sweet.
He finds a corker in Ansari’s character Arj, a loser whose attempts to play the Los Angeles gig economy for fun and profit have left him sleeping in his car and contemplating a future not worth living. Where’s the pleasure in running errands for one-percenters on Taskrabbit or taking a second gig at a home-goods store where his coworker crush Elena (the always kickass Keke Palmer) only sees him in her peripheral vision?
This sounds like a job for Gabriel. But instead of nudging Arj into a better job, as his angel boss Martha (Sandra Oh) might suggest, Gabriel pulls a “Freaky Friday” stunt and decides for one week only to switch out Arj with Jeff, a tech bro billionaire and venture capitalist played by Seth Rogen with the comic bluster that just won him an Emmy for “The Studio.”
Jeff doesn’t enjoy working for his own exploitation-fueled food-delivery app, but Arj is in heaven having arrogant Jeff work for him. Living in the lap of lazy luxury suits Arj, as Taylor Swift would sing, “all too well.” When the time comes for Arj to switch back, he howls like hell at losing the comforts of living large in a mansion in the Hollywood Hills.
It’s easy to appreciate what Ansari is doing here, reimagining the Frank Capra’s classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” and another 1940’s angel-on-earth perennial, “Here Comes Mr. Jordan,” for the age of income inequality. Ansari does get a few licks in, but too often dulls his points with pokey pacing and plot threads that don’t tie together.
And what of Gabriel? Since Martha has clipped his wings for breeching angel rules, Gabriel—now a boozing, chain-smoking, dishwasher at an all-you-can-eat restaurant—finds joy in “nuggies,” the heaven-sent chicken nuggets this angel had never experienced on Earth. Poor baby. The face on Reeves as he savors this tasty malnourishing treat is not to be missed.
Everything Reeves touches in this film is good fortune for film lovers. No matter that the rest of this mixed bag of satire and silliness ultimately bungles the job, Reeves flies above the idiocies and inconsistencies to bring us the good time his angel promised. Sweet.