By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

A Good Person (USA, 2023. Dir: Zach Braff): It’s hard to explain why a portion of the public can’t stand Zach Braff. He hasn’t been cancelled or done anything embarrassing that we know of (Wish I Was Here wasn’t that bad). If nothing else, he tends to fall upwards, but for the most part the actor/director has worked his butt off to get his movies made.

Granted, Braff’s greatest hits are from over a decade ago (Garden State, 2005; Scrubs, 2001-2010), but he has worked consistently since, in front and behind the camera. He has earned the benefit of the doubt.

His latest film as writer/director, A Good Person, isn’t great, but is competent enough to be watchable (except for that hideous poster, a photoshop crime). It greatly benefits of two pros making an effort: the indefatigable Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman in a role with a bit more edge than the rest of his recent grandfatherly output.

(Mild spoilers ahead) Pugh is Allison, once an up-and-comer sales rep about to get married, now an oxy popping screw-up with nothing to look forward to. What happened in between? A horrific car accident that strained her relationship with her fiancé and destroyed her self-esteem.

Borderline suicidal and in denial about her addiction, in a half-hearted effort to go straight, Allison attends an AA meeting. She runs into Daniel (Freeman), her ex-fiancé’s dad, who has very good reasons to shun her altogether. Against all odds, Daniel provides Allison with a lifeline and a very faint possibility of redemption. (End spoilers)

A drama like A Good Person lives and dies by the dialogue and Braff alternates corny, basic, and sporadically insightful lines. Some of the comedy work thanks to Florence Pugh’s ability to make fun of herself, but that’s obviously not the film’s tone and we’re quickly reminded this movie is about DEATH.

This being a Zach Braff movie, action takes the backseat to character development, which is refreshing for an American film. If only the filmmaker had relinquished the rehab template and dared to explore the more obscure corners of a story a hundred times told, A Good Person could have transcended the clichés it’s mired on. 2/5 stars.

A Good Person is now playing in theatres.