Film Review: A GOOD PERSON (2023): Florence Pugh Anchors Zach Braff’s Most Heartfelt Film to Date

A Good Person Review

A Good Person (2023) Film Review, a movie written and directed by Zach Braff and starring Florence Pugh, Morgan Freeman, Celeste O’Connor, Molly Shannon, Zoe Lister-Jones, Chinaza Uche, Nichelle Hines, Toby Onwumere, Ignacio Diaz-Silverio, Oli Green, Alex Wolff, Brian Rojas, Ryann Redmond, Sydney Morton, Mike Menendez, Drew Gehling and Dudney Joseph Jr.  

Zach Braff’s latest drama, A Good Person, packs a wallop that will stay with viewers long after the final credits roll. Braff’s movie is quite an accomplishment for the brave, always intriguing filmmaker. As a picture primarily about opioid addiction, A Good Person doesn’t hide behind cinematic cliches. On the contrary. This movie lays out the bare truth about how hard the struggle is to maintain one’s sanity after tragedy. There are several characters whose lives are interwoven into the premise of Braff’s new film. Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman star in the movie as Allison and Daniel whose lives intersect after a horrific car accident takes those close to both characters.

As the movie opens, Allison is engaged to Nathan (Chinaza Uche), a kind and gentle guy who is deaf in one ear. Allison is talented, can play the piano quite well and has an overall passion for music. Allison and Nathan seem to have a bright future ahead of them. One day as she is driving a car with Nathan and his sister, she uses her cell phone to try to see what plays are available for them to see. A formidable crash ensues which takes Nathan’s sister’s life and the life of the sister’s significant other who was also in the car. Allison learns of the news while in the hospital recovering from her wounds and her life will never be the same.

We skip ahead some as some time has passed and crash survivors Allison and Nathan are no longer together (Allison broke up with him). Allison is living with her mom, Diane (Molly Shannon) who encourages her to go get a job. Allison has become addicted to OxyContin. She goes to a bar and is forced by some shady male friends she went to high school with to admit she’s a junkie. Allison is suffering and is hanging on by a very thin thread.

In the interim, an aging character we see briefly at the beginning of the film, Daniel, is dealing with his teenage granddaughter, Ryan (Celeste O’Connor) who is suffering the loss of her parents. Ryan, as it is told, is Nathan’s niece. When Ryan gets picked on by a bully at school, her plans for college are thwarted and her grades plummet. Her life is in chaos so she seeks sex from an older boy she meets online who Daniel chases out of the house when he finds them fooling around together.

Allison and Daniel are connected through their addictions: Her drug addiction and Daniel’s drinking addiction which takes the best of him as he tries to adequately deal with his granddaughter’s coming-of-age. When Allison and Daniel meet up at a support group in a twist of fate, their lives are forever changed. They grow to form a bond that is truly moving and will soon involve Ryan who is suffering through many personal hardships of her own.

Zoe Lister-Jones, in a terrific and memorable role in the movie, plays Simone who takes Allison under her wing and sponsors her. Simone tells Allison she’ll be there for her but doesn’t want anymore “bullshit” from Allison. As a parent, the good-hearted Simone, has limited free time but wants to help Allison on her road back to recovery.

This movie is an exercise in raw emotions and inner healing but the picture is, alas, quite different from anything else I’ve ever seen. Braff doesn’t sugarcoat anything. There are a lot of difficult, awkward moments in life and Braff captures them to a tee. Take for instance, the scene when Daniel must suggest that Ryan uses birth control. That is the type of conversation no parent or grandparent wants to have with a teenager. Freeman and O’Connor have an on-screen relationship that starts shaky but is properly developed throughout the events that transpire in the movie. The performances of Freeman and O’Connor are both superb as they capture their characters’ despair to perfection.

Florence Pugh is a revelation even though we’ve seen her do excellent work in the past. One would never think Pugh was capable of reaching the heights she does here in this particular role as Allison. As Allison rides her bike around town looking for a quick fix, she seems to have lost all hope. Only Daniel and Ryan have the ability to get her out of the dark place she is immersed in within herself. Pugh amazingly goes through many different emotions in this role and makes us feel all her character’s pains and tribulations. Shannon, as her mom, is good as her character is forced to put on a happy face to give Allison the hope that is needed to bring Allison back to reality and back to a normal life.

The supporting cast is solid with Zoe Lister-Jones taking top honors for her genuine and deeply felt performance. Chinaza Uche brings his character, Nathan, a lot of subtext and turns in a quietly effective performance. We see Nathan’s own personal struggles with Daniel and the brief scenes between Uche and Freeman are very good. Ryann Redmond is also noteworthy for her scene as Becka who Allison tries to blackmail early in the movie in order to score some drugs.

Morgan Freeman has made some great films but he’s doing something he hasn’t done before here. The actor’s amazing tendency to become different characters in every role he plays is quite commendable. His scenes with Pugh are profound and shed a lot of light on the tribulations that addicts face in their day-to-day lives. Pugh steers the movie towards greatness with her towering work while Freeman is the glue that holds it all together.

After seeing A Good Person, your life will never be the same. This film is almost like a reawakening to the world where we realize that the people around us are fighting battles we know nothing about. Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman will get a lot of the credit for the film’s success and deservedly so. However, it takes a truly brave artist to be able to tell this story with so much passion. Zach Braff’s writing and direction is the reason A Good Person is the triumph that it is. Not many movies these days get applause from every day viewers but this film will when the end credits come up. It’s a fine picture.

Rating: 9.5/10

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