Allow Keanu Reeves Smile More Often: A Look at His Role in the New Film
Aziz Ansari's directorial debut, this whimsical comedy from actor Aziz Ansari, has been facing challenges at the box office. Several reasons may account for the film's performance: Its uninspired name fails to express the film's distinctive charm. Its screenplay is often preachy and heavy-handed with its themes. The acting seem uninspired and staged, like the cast are reading dialogue directly from the page. Moreover, it arrives during an era of economic anxiety and inequality, that could make audiences not very receptive to a story that implies wealthy individuals enjoy all the advantages while the poor have spirit.
However, this is where Good Fortune stands out: The film is unique, daring, imaginative, often funny, and undoubtedly relevant. And, it offers a enjoyable Keanu Reeves character-driven movie.
Keanu Reeves in the role of Guardian: A Familiar Portrayal
I have never considered Keanu Reeves to be a good actor. His flat speaking style and consistent look of slight perturbation have consistently felt one-note, regardless of the broad variety of characters he has taken on during the past four decades of his career. Smart directors have placed him in parts where his rigidity fits perfectly, including My Own Private Idaho to the sci-fi classic to the action series. Yet nearly all of these roles called for him to appear hardened, closed-off, or detached.
In the film, Reeves portrays Gabriel, one minor guardian celestial being assigned with looking after people who use their phones while behind the wheel. The character's whole job is sitting in their cars and gently touching their arms when they're about to have an accident, alerting them in order that the driver brake before impact. However, while standing overlooking the city, looking down upon the mortal world like an alternative version of the angel in Wim Wenders' renowned movie the angel story, the character becomes aspirational. Gabriel wants to become an exceptional protector and rescuer of wayward individuals.
The Unexpected Shift: Reeves Playing a Mortal
Therefore, he presents himself to struggling odd-jobber a character (played by the director), who is living in a vehicle and resenting his life. Gabriel proceeds to exchanges the man with the existence of extremely wealthy tech mogul Jeff (acted by the comedian). This idea of the experiment is for the character would realize the wealthy man's existence has major downsides, and gratefully return to his own circumstances, much like the character in It's a Wonderful Life.
Problem is, Arj immediately realizes that Jeff's problems (tedious appointments, a pricey pool-heater bill) prove negligible and readily solved using wealth. Arj also realizes how being affluent provides endless chances for pleasurable fun. The character shows zero desire in going back to his previous situation, and Gabriel is unable to force him to return. Subsequently, additional bad news arrives: Because of overstepping his mandate and messing with the balance of existence, Gabriel is fired as an angel job, and turned into a mortal.
The Discovery: Keanu Reeves Grins
I was not persuaded by the actor playing an angel with grand aspirations and an intense wish to make a difference. Reeves turns in the same somewhat constipated acting he has been offering for at least the past 3 ten-year periods. Viewing him as an celestial being that has just become human initially, on the other hand, proved to be a blast, for a reason that really astonished viewers at first: It's something different for Reeves. Or perhaps to be precise, something from the past.
Early into the character's confusing career being a mortal, staying with the wealthy character (who the angel exchanged into Arj's precarious existence and jobless status), Gabriel begins tentatively experimenting with human experiences like eating and swallowing meals. And the actor grins. Genuinely, cautiously, happily smiles. (This is far much believable than his smile on the promotional image, which looks artificially added.)
The Reason This Smile Is Significant
It really took me aback to recognize just how surprising and welcome the expression was. At what point was the last time audiences observed Keanu Reeves grin in a film in which he wasn't expressing ill will, sarcasm, or bitterness? He probably tries a smile at some point in the recent misbegotten Bill & Ted Face the Music, but I'm not revisiting that disappointment to confirm. Reeves has been stuck with grim, violent, introspective, or just serious characters for so long that merely watching him smile felt like seeing a completely different actor.
As the plot progresses, the character finds himself needing to take a kitchen position, which fails to provide sufficient to live on, and Gabriel begins chain-smoking due to disappointment. Simply the sight of Reeves in a disposable paper food-service cap, with his recent trademark long hair pulled back in a plain bun, leaning on a wall and puffing on a cigarette, is worth watching. The dishwasher attire totally changes his face and body: Unexpectedly, the slim, suited action star of the John Wick movies is gawky, ordinary, and a lot more human.
The Joy of Watching Keanu Loosen Up
The film is not always fun to watch, especially when the director (that also wrote the script) must create plausible reasons for {Ar
