“Good Grief” opens at a Christmas get together hosted by Marc (Levy) and his husband Oliver (Luke Evans), a well-known author whose books have been become huge blockbusters a la “The Starvation Video games” or “Twilight.” In truth, he’s so beloved that he has to hurry off to a e-book signing on the Louvre that very evening, leaving the get together early. Marc and the partygoers see the lights from the responding officers to the automotive crash that takes Oliver’s life, sending Marc right into a spiral of grief. Marc has been right here earlier than, noting early within the movie how he escaped the ache of his mom’s demise when he began a relationship with Oliver. Marc additionally has a behavior of making an attempt to label himself, saying early on that he’s now an orphan and a widower. One of the best facets of “Good Grief” attempt to deconstruct these easy phrases, revealing how everyone seems to be extra complicated than even they assume they’re.
The actual drama of “Good Grief” comes a yr after Oliver’s demise, when Marc lastly has the nerve to open his Christmas card from 12 months in the past, solely to find that Oliver was confessing to an affair and wished to speak about their future. What occurs to grief when it collides with betrayal? A number of different plot spins and Marc discovers that Oliver had an house in Paris, the place he was headed to satisfy his lover the evening he died. In an effort to shut some emotional loops, Marc goes to France along with his two finest associates, Sophie (Ruth Negga) and Thomas (Himesh Patel), a pair who’ve struggled in their very own lives, however appear to actually need nothing however peace for his or her buddy, even when he does not inform them precisely why they are going on this journey as a result of, “film”.
Levy has stated that he wished to make a movie a couple of makeshift household, and that side comes by within the heat performances from the always-great Negga and Patel, however it’s additionally one of many script’s weaknesses in that you simply don’t get to completely know these characters as a lot as it’s best to. Sure, they get their very own development arcs, however they’re largely mirrors for Marc, as is a brand new relationship that Marc falls into in Paris, which is when the movie actually begins to pull. The impetus to offer Marc new love is comprehensible, however it feels pressured, a strategy to let him outline previous relationships by a brand new one when a riskier model of “Good Grief” would permit him to seek out his personal path in a much less predictable means. Levy’s script too usually appears as misplaced as Marc, greedy at plot threads and cliches to offer it the momentum it usually lacks.