With a leading cast of Morgan Freeman and Florence Pugh, A Good Person was expected to be an emotional drama, and it did not disappoint.
This is a genuine story about depression leading to addiction, and how that addiction affects relationships. This particular storyline pulls two people together by a common denominator, or two actually, where both individuals share the tragedy that leads Pugh’s character into addiction, and the addiction itself.
The basis of this story follows Allison (Pugh), who by a second of distraction on her cellphone, causes an accident that takes the life of her soon to be sister- and brother-in-law. This causes her to break the engagement and spiral into an oxycontin addiction, started by masking her physical pain which turns into masking her emotional pain. When she comes to the realization that she needs help, she attends an AA meeting, one that finds Daniel (Freeman) also in attendance to ensure his recovery from alcoholism continues despite losing his daughter and son-in-law in that same accident. He is also tasked with raising his granddaughter adding to the stress of his situation, threatening his 10 years of sobriety. What ensues is a complicated path to recovery and forgiveness for both of them.
How is this connected to “history” through Hollywood? We are in the midst of “an opioid crisis” and an increase in alcohol abuse resulting from the recent COVID pandemic lockdowns. If we remember in our recent past, the liquor stores were one of the “essential” stores permitted to stay open during the most strict of the lockdowns and many people sought respite in a bottle since we were all left without normal routines or extended human contact. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism notes, “In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, sales of alcohol increased by 2.9%, the largest annual increase in over 50 years. For those who were drinking more during the pandemic, research suggests that stress, anxiety, and previous alcohol misuse are contributing factors” (NIAA 2022). It makes sense that we would see a film that addresses both, alcoholism and addiction to oxycontin, as well as the consequences of using a cellphone while driving, all products of our current social environments. This is a great example of how film reflects our reality, and this film can be seen 20, or even 50, years from now, and give some insights into depression, addiction, and the lack of available services to help those in need in the 2020s.
The review of A Good Person in the Indie Wire criticizes the film, and specifically Pugh’s character, describing her and her scenes as “cliché.” Kate Erbland writes: “This is a film in which we see Florence Pugh smoke crack with a pair of mean local losers behind a shitty dive bar on a weekday morning, and that’s not even close to being the film’s most cliched incident. (Please hold for the ”I’m throwing your pills down the toilet while you cry and scream” interlude, the frantic digging for pills under the sink trick, even a desperate run to a local pharmacy in hopes of using her waylaid charm to scam a new prescription)” (Erbland 2023).
I strongly disagree that these portrayals were “cliché.” From my perspective, these scenes seemed very real and raw highlighting just how desperate Allie’s need to feed her addiction had become. Any attempt to dismiss these scenes as “cliché” furthers the very real problem of mental health and addiction in this country. The fact that Alison smoked crack because she couldn’t get a fix any other way, after several attempts to find oxy, shows just how far down the rabbit hole Allison had ventured. In fact, the “two mean locals” forced her to admit her addiction by trading the statement “I’m a junkie” for the much needed fix. This highlights her desperation as well as her self-recognition of what she has become, leading her to the first AA meeting.
The “I’m throwing your pills down the toilet” is also a genuine portrayal of a loved one trying to help an addict without formally admitting her daughter is an addict. This is a difficult admission for both mother and daughter, but the mother does recognize there is a problem. This is an authentic portrayal of how these relationships become codependent and volatile at the same time. The fact that Allison’s mother then feels guilty for flushing the pills is also representative of codependency and negotiation found in these types of relationships, and the mother then feeds Allison’s addiction by providing oxy “borrowed” from a friend, enabling Allison and unknowingly preventing her from seeking real help.
As stated, Allison does eventually attend AA, but she shows up high, justifying this by only taking half a pill. Again, this is a genuine portrayal of how an addict might find a compromise between wanting recovery but needing to feed that addiction at any cost. Dismissing these scenes as “cliché” only furthers the problems we as a society face with addiction because it minimizes addiction generally and dismisses the consequences of addiction more specifically. The desperation that addiction creates in users is very real. The broken and toxic relationships between addicts and their loved ones is also very real. These should never be dismissed as clichés.
The New York Times review unfortunately misses the point because it is critical of aggrandizing recovery. Brandon Yu dubs the portrayal as “too heavy a hand,” (Yu 2023, C7) criticizing all the problems Allison faces as perhaps over the top. But this again dismisses the dire consequences of addiction on all parties involved. Yu also focuses too much on how many bad things have to happen to Allison in the film, insinuating that this is too far-fetched. But sometimes, and in fact many times, an addict will hit rock bottom several times before seeking real help. Allison’s realization after smoking crack was not her only “rock bottom,” a reflection of reality for addicts.
To Yu’s credit, he does acknowledge that the story should focus on the addiction rather than redemption. Yu writes: “This isn’t to say that A Good Person is disingenuous: Braff wrote the script while wrestling with the deaths of several loved ones in the last few years. But the film would do better understanding that its core sufferings, of mourning and of self-blame, are dramatic enough. Instead it gets lost in raising the stakes to center a big-hearted tale of recovery. The real story is in the quiet moments, where the silence of grief hangs palpably between Allison and Daniel, ever-present and consuming” (Yu 2023, C7). Here Yu may be on to something because the portrayal of the guilt, depression, and addiction and how these issues affect relationships are the point. But we need to know redemption, and recovery, are possible. Otherwise, what would the film be trying to say? Addiction is “horrible” and that is all there is? What kind of a message is that? The film does not minimize the difficulty in getting to recovery resources and in fact shows that sometimes recovery efforts fail, for both Allison and Daniel. Recovery is hard work, but it is possible with the support of a good program.
And this brings us to the real message of the film – When Allison realizes that AA may not be intense enough for her recovery, she suggests an inpatient program. Her mother reminds her that they are both currently unemployed and neither has insurance, or money, which means an inpatient facility is out of reach – Herein lies the problem. The healthcare situation in our country is broken. Healthcare is out of reach economically for many, and mental health services are even further out of reach for the uninsured and sometimes even for the insured. Mental health services are an afterthought even with medical insurance companies who fail to provide adequate coverage.
Our system is not adequate to help those who want help. The film does highlight this, if only subtly, but this an important detail and should not be overlooked as Braff sends an important message. Perhaps if addiction services were more readily available, Braff would not have lost ones he cared about to this disease. It is not surprising that Erbland completely misses this point, and this scene. In this scene, Allie tells her mother she went to AA. Erbland admits in her review she did not watch this scene because she states, “Ali attempts to get clean, only to discover that her local Alcoholics Anonymous meeting (or is it Narcotics Anonymous? it’s never clear, weird for a film about addiction) is also frequented by Daniel (Morgan Freeman)” (Erbland 2023). Weird for a reviewer to miss such an important detail, but, then again, Erbland missed quite a bit relegating scenes to her idea of “cliches” on drug and alcohol addiction, which tells me she has no experience dealing with the consequences of addiction.
Braff’s film is important and it sends several important messages - the most important is the failure of our healthcare system in general. Perhaps if we had the resources for all of those who are seeking help, our society would not be facing an opioid crisis. These reviews don’t give Braff enough credit for bringing to light a genuine, raw, emotional, and, at times, heartbreaking portrayal of depression and addiction, as well as the success of real recovery programs in giving people hope for a clean and successful life after addiction.
References
Erbland, Kate. 2023. “With 'A Good Person,' Zach Braff Creates Something Worse Than the Manic Pixie Dream Girl.” IndieWire, March 25, 2023. https://www.indiewire.com/2023/03/a-good-person-zach-braff-manic-pixie-dream-girl-1234821853/.
NIAA. 2022. “Deaths involving alcohol increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.” National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/news-events/research-update/deaths-involving-alcohol-increased-during-covid-19-pandemic.
Yu, Brandon. 2023. “Trying to Look Up After Hitting Rock Bottom.” The New York Times (New York, New York edition), March 24, 2023, C7. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/23/movies/a-good-person-review-zach-braff.html.
