Written and Directed by Daniel Levy
Daniel Levy burst onto the scene with the hit television show Schitt’s Creek, a favorite of my wife and I’s. Since, he has only continued to rise in his artistry, even if a little more behind the scenes. After signing a deal with Netflix, Good Grief becomes the first piece of content delivered as part of that contract. “Content”, honestly a dirty word in the industry at the moment, at least on the consumer/critic side. I hope that Good Grief isn’t viewed as just “content” by the many, many Netflix subscribers who will likely view the film, even if the Netflix brass does so. And the fact that this will get distribution via Netflix is honestly a salve. While Netflix can often times be a desolate wasteland of bad “content”, when something good does come along it’s always at least a little reassuring knowing that lots of people will get to enjoy it.
Marc (Daniel Levy) is a talented artist who works closely with his novelist husband Oliver (Luke Evans) to create a blissfully happy partnership. After a tragic accident unexpectedly takes the life of Oliver, Marc must lean on his two closest friends, Thomas (Himesh Patel) and Sophie (Ruth Negga), who carry their own baggage, in order to cope with and come out the other side of the grieving process. After learning that Oliver secretly held an apartment in Paris, Marc convinces the trio to take a trip there, where emotion and truth bubble to the surface to test their love and friendship.
On the one hand, this is a January Netflix movie, while on the other this is a Daniel Levy movie. So I shouldn’t be surprised that this is nearly as good as it is, but still, it’s a January Netflix movie. There are two major elements which make Good Grief work as well as it does. The first is the wonderful ensemble cast, which starts with Daniel Levy himself, but extends well beyond to both Himesh Patel and Ruth Negga as his close friends, Luke Evans brief turn as the husband Oliver, and even bit players David Bradley (you’ll recognize him as Filtch from Harry Potter) as Oliver’s dad, and Celia Imrie as Marc and Oliver lawyer. Up and down good, convincing, emotional performances. Negga and Patel particularly soar, while Levy has an uncanny ability to emote, even from behind his patented smirk which is ever-present.
The other contributing factor is Levy’s ability behind the camera as both writer and director of the film. It starts with the script, which is well thought out and constructed to hit the right emotional beats at the right time. And while there are some conversations and lines of dialogue that on the page may feel overly scripted and unnatural, Levy’s steady hand as director, his ability to get genuine deliveries from his cast is a special power which overcomes whatever deficiencies he might have as a writer. The compliment of the two, actually three, jobs Daniel Levy serves on the film come together surprisingly well, though perhaps I should not be so surprised at this point. I’m excited to see what other “content” Levy has on deck with Netflix.
When I think of Levy, my mind obviously goes to comedy for his hilarious portrayal of David in Schitt’s Creek, but if you reach deeper you’ll quickly realize that the trick with both David and the show in general was not just how funny it was, but that he was able to craft extremely flawed, and in the case of Schitt’s Creek, deeply unlikable characters and make them feel like family. He made them feel like a group of people worth connecting to and rooting for. That’s a real magic trick. And while Marc, Thomas and Sophie are not as big as assholes as the Rose family at the start of the show, they are just as flawed, just as human, just as relatable. What Good Grief shows is that friendship is important, love is important. Without it we’re just sad little assholes, every last one of us.
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