‘Good Grief’ Review: Somehow, Life Goes On in Daniel Levy’s Film – The New York Times

Romantic comedies are powered by farcical set items like missed connections, mistaken identities and mix-ups that result in happy-ending fantasies. (They’re all modeled on Shakespeare, in the long run.) These kinds of moments do abound in “Good Grief,” which options fairly urbanites in fairly locations studying classes about friendship, life and love, identical to a rom-com would. However to the immense credit score of the film’s author, director and star Daniel Levy (of “Schitt’s Creek”), this can be a very totally different form of film — and a significantly better one.

That’s to not say “Good Grief” isn’t humorous, as a result of usually it’s. However it’s as if the acquainted madcap beats have been wrapped round a drama, and the result’s one way or the other light-handed but deft and genuine in its remedy of grief’s lengthy tail. The person at its heart, Marc (Levy), is an artist residing in London whose husband, Oliver (Luke Evans), dies in a automotive accident, abandoning numerous free ends, a few of them hidden from his family members. Marc tries to navigate the primary yr of life as a shocked widower with the assistance of his buddies Sophie (Ruth Negga) and Thomas (Himesh Patel). They’re all artistic folks — Sophie designs costumes for motion pictures, Thomas works at a gallery — and all of their late 30s, with an extended historical past behind them. Every additionally harbors long-simmering hurts of their very own, and when the three spend a weekend in Paris collectively, issues come to a head.

That is the type of movie you need to stay inside, with stunning furnishings, glowing gentle and an prosperous coziness that verges on Nancy Meyers territory. Oliver was the writer of a Potter-esque younger grownup e-book collection that spawned a profitable movie franchise, so he leaves Marc comfortably well-off, with a stunning home into which Thomas merely strikes to maintain his pal firm. With out having to grapple with how Marc can pay his payments — a well-known complication of sudden loss for many individuals — “Good Grief” is freed to concentrate on extra existential and emotional dimensions. If you’ve entwined your life with another person’s, what occurs after they’re gone? When love evaporates with out warning, how will you hold residing?

The solutions are advanced, as a result of everybody experiences and processes numerous phases of grief otherwise. Emotions zig and zag. We strive issues to drown out the ache, feeling higher sooner or later and horrid the subsequent. Nothing strikes predictably. No one can inform you tips on how to repair it, as a result of it could possibly’t be mounted, solely lived by way of.

Levy’s script navigates all of this complexity nimbly, by no means over-explaining what Marc goes by way of. As a substitute “Good Grief” does that uncommon, stunning factor: It trusts the viewers to concentrate. It’s restrained in revealing the small print of Marc and Oliver’s marriage — joys, sorrows, compromises, conflicts — in addition to the again story of the group’s friendship. There aren’t any actual twists, and each time it appeared the film was about to take the simple manner out, it didn’t. Thank goodness.

How properly “Good Grief” works for you could rely in your tolerance for watching lengthy conversations amongst buddies about ache, regrets and loss. Largely I feel it’s efficient; a couple of instances, it sags, shedding its rhythm briefly in abstractions. However it at all times returns, producing emotion with out diving right into a treacly pit of cloying mush. The credit score lies with the actors: Negga’s vivacity, Patel’s aching sincerity and Levy’s uncanny expertise for excellent line readings make these folks really feel immediately recognizable, their chemistry legible as difficult love.

Late within the movie, Marc admits that when his mom died, he “opted out” of the ache by distracting himself, and now he’s doing the identical once more. Different characters choose out of their ache by drowning it or denying it or just refusing to acknowledge it. But the ache that accompanies loss sticks round like a hole spot in your chest, altering form however by no means disappearing. In most rom-coms, conflicts are likely to resolve simply, all a product of bewilderment. In “Good Grief,” decision isn’t the purpose. The concept is to maintain on loving, to seek out new life.

Good Grief
Rated R for tragedy, and for 30-somethings behaving like scorching messes. Operating time: 1 hour 40 minutes. Watch on Netflix.