Good Fortune feels like a modern, reversed take on It’s a Wonderful Life. But even though there are some light nods to helping others, it presents a rather bleak, victim-filled worldview. There’s drinking and drug use. The dialogue is rife with profanity. And it’s not all that amusing.
Arj is a dispirited guy struggling to keep his head above water in a dispirited world.
He really wants to be a documentary editor, and he acquired a college degree toward that pursuit. But documentaries don’t grow on trees. So, Arj spends most of his time doing Taskrabbit-like jobs in the hope of making enough to pay his rent. You can tell how successful he’s been by the fact that he’s currently living in his car.
Gabriel is a dispirited angel (if that can even be a thing) who moves about in a bland, beige coat.
Being an angel, Gabe wants to do some wonderful, life-redirecting stuff. But that’s not in his job description. Gabe’s a low-level angelic being—attested to by his too-tiny-to-fly wings. And he’s been assigned the job of making sure that people texting in their cars don’t end up in horrendous accidents. That makes Gabe incredibly busy—because humans seem to love that particular activity—but he’s still unfulfilled.
Jeff is anything but dispirited.
As an über-wealthy tech bro who’s parlayed family wealth into some major cash, Jeff’s biggest concern is worrying over when he might make the time to learn to drive stick. (He’s got this incredible classic Porche in his garage that he’s never driven.) But between his sauna-and-cold-plunge schedule and the time it takes to hire someone to put a disco floor into his living room, he just doesn’t have the margin.
One day, Gabe protects Arj from a typical texting-while-driving catastrophe. And he’s intrigued by the despair he sees in Arj’s texts. He decides to follow him as Arj takes a job cleaning out Jeff’s overpacked garage.
That’s when an incredible idea hits the angelic watcher: What if Arj and Jeff switched places for a short while?
Jeff could see what it’s like to struggle for a living, see what it’s like to have no career prospects. And Arj could see that a life of wealth and privilege isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, that living with riches can be lonely and free of so many basic joys.
Problem is, after Gabe makes the switch, Arj decides he kinda likes lonely, fat-cat wealth and privilege. And he’s happy to stay where he is.
So, what’s the lesson now?
Good Fortune presents a rather polarized worldview, but it also promotes the positive virtues of people pulling together and helping others around them. One woman tries to improve working conditions and gain health benefits for her coworkers, for example.
Gabriel, quite frankly, has his strengths and weaknesses as an angelic figure, often making poor choices along the way. But it’s clear that he wants to do good and teach people to value the lives they are living.
Neither Arj nor Jeff come off as admirable people, but they do make small efforts to help those around them and show their appreciation for others. Arj connects with his father in a positive way, for instance. And later, Jeff turns to the leaders in his corporate groups and demands that they pay and support their workers more favorably.
At one point, Gabe is turned into a human. He gets a job washing dishes and becomes friends with a fellow worker named Felipe. And when Gabe becomes depressed over his life, Felipe encourages him, inviting him out dancing with friends and family. Later, Gabe declares that, even in his struggles, he loved being human: being with people and laughing.
Good Fortune portrays a world in which angels work unseen in the background of human life. Gabe is one such angelic entity, though a rather sad-sack member of that order.
At a gathering of angels, we’re told that there’s a hierarchy of angelic duties given out based on each angel’s “level”: musical inspiration, avalanche protection, etc. One angel tells a story about “saving a lost soul” by giving that man a vision of what his life could look like after making better choices. Gabe aspires to give such uplifting help.
When Jeff realizes that Gabe has supernaturally given his life to Arj, he yells at Arj declaring, “Switch back or this angel man will send you to hell.” But Gabe states, “That’s not my department.”
Gabe is stripped of his wings and turned human for causing the trouble with Jeff and Arj. That opens him up to human joys—food, friends and dancing—and vices, such as drinking and smoking.
We see women at a pool party dressed in bikinis and shirtless men in swim shorts. Some women make comments about Gabe’s handsome appeal. And one states her desire to perform sexual acts with him. She tries to seduce the humanized angel, but Gabe’s attention is drawn elsewhere.
Arj and his love interest, Elena, kiss romantically on several occasions. In a vision, we see the two of them living together unmarried.
Several people nearly crash their vehicles while texting and driving. We also see a couple of fender benders. Arj is left in a coma following a car accident. Jeff passes out at a party and falls to the ground. Jeff is also shot in the shoulder while robbing someone.
There are about 30 f-words and 20 s-words scattered throughout the dialogue along with uses of “a–,” “h—,” “d–n” and “b–ch.” God’s and Jesus’ names are misused a half dozen times total. (God is combined with “d–n” on two of those instances.)
A crude reference is made to male genitals.
Jeff takes a psychoactive drug that causes him to vomit. We see people drinking wine, beer and a variety of mixed drinks in casual and party settings. Even Gabe, after becoming human, gets in on the inebriating act, drinking beer, eating marijuana-infused candy and swigging from a small bottle of booze. Gabe also take to smoking cigarettes. And when someone questions that habit, he replies, “Leave me alone. It’s all I have.”
Gabe tries to inspire Arj with visions of a possible future. Unfortunately, he seems to miss the mark since the visions show Arj working miserable jobs, living with a girlfriend in her mother’s overpacked apartment and euthanizing a beloved pet. “That’s what I have to live for?” Arj gasps. “My life isn’t precious!”
After Gabe causes a number of problematic issues, his angel boss takes his wings and makes him human. And the new human sinks into negative habits such as smoking and drinking. He becomes depressed and lives a life of poverty and want.
Arj is fired from one job after paying for a date with his boss’ corporate card. There’s some toilet humor in the movie’s collection of gags. A wealthy Arj discusses Elena’s earnest desire to unionize her workplace, poo-pooing the effort. Angry at his insensitivity, Elena proclaims: “This is my life, and I have to fight for it!”
As a poor man, Jeff attempts to steal some items in order to survive (items that were originally owned by him before Arj took over his life). While gazing at a lavish home, someone boldly states that “anybody with a setup like this stole it from somebody.”
Good Fortune feels very much like a derivative take on the old Frank Capra film It’s a Wonderful Life. In that film, an angel steps into a guy’s world to show him that his seemingly problem-filled existence is actually a blessing, and he’s made a difference by being there. This struggling guy is then given a renewed sense of purpose through his marriage, his family and his friends—all by God’s hand.
The problem is actor/writer/director Aziz Ansari is no Frank Capra. And his movie’s cinematic worldview is at odds with those faith- and family-centric values.
In Ansari’s view, today’s world is an unfair tug-of-war between the wealthy and the poor, the overprivileged and the underserved. In fact, Good Fortune’s hapless angelic helper opines that “I became a human. … I lived like he did, and I understand why he doesn’t have hope in his life.” And someone else concurs, wondering why people aren’t angry and depressed all the time.
The joys of marriage, family and faith? Well, they’re OK, we’re told, but not really significant these days.
Add in the fact that this comedy isn’t all that funny and that its language is pretty foul, and you’ve got a film that some may want to sit through while huffing out a dispirited sigh of their own—and perhaps an occasional chuckle. But most won’t think this pic rings the right bells.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
