By P.A. Geddie
Directed by Zach Braff, A Good Person is “a haunting slice of real life that will make you think, feel, and maybe even want to reach out to your loved ones.” (Los Angeles Times)
Allison (Florence Pugh) is a promising young woman with a thriving career, a loving fiancé, and a close-knit circle of family and friends. But her life takes a sudden turn for the worse when she experiences a harrowing tragedy that leaves her battling an addiction to opiates and grappling with unresolved sorrow.
Despite the challenges that lie ahead, she finds solace and strength in an unexpected relationship with her would-be father-in-law, Daniel (Morgan Freeman), who becomes her unlikely ally in the journey towards healing and recovery.
Woven throughout the story is Daniel’s model train town where he moves miniature figurines around to depict some real, some fiction scenarios.
In one scene for instance, a soldier is returning home from the war and being greeted by a loving father at the train station to pick him up. While it’s true that Daniel was a soldier and arrived home from Vietnam, it is not true that his father was there to meet him.
An undercurrent message throughout the film is that people who are hurt deeply by important people or situations, often continue that behavior by hurting themselves and others.
At the end of the movie, Daniel explains in a letter to Allison that in the miniature version of a city, everything is always so positive and without problems, but real life isn’t as neat and tidy.
Both badly wounded characters struggle to find a way forward after devastating failures with tragic consequences. Until they look past their own pain and denial, forgiveness and atonement are not in reach, and they keep repeating patterns of hurting themselves and others. Redemption and taking accountability for one’s actions, no matter how hurtful they might be, are key in their stories for living more fulfilling lives.
This movie drives home how important it is to look at life-altering situations and access your own part in it and suggests that once you forgive yourself and make amends as needed you begin to heal and perhaps forgive others for the role they played (such as the highway construction crew) in creating the tragedy as well.
And a big lesson that can’t be stressed enough in today’s phone-addicted society, “don’t take your eyes off the road when driving.”
