Lede
So, did Good Fortune manage to be a sharp social satire, or did it end up a tragic parody of every‐day life? Let’s pick through it.
Movie synopsis roast: Good Fortune (2025)
Good Fortune wants to be a modern fairy tale about rich and poor swapping lives and finding meaning. What it delivers feels like Heaven Can Wait rewritten by a rideshare algorithm. The plot floats somewhere between divine intervention and tax return. An angel in jeans (Keanu Reeves) decides that humanity needs a little empathy lesson, so he meddles with a gig worker (Aziz Ansari) and a tech millionaire (Seth Rogen). The result is less revelation and more customer-service training video with wings. Jokes arrive late, morals arrive forced, and the only miracle is how anyone keeps a straight face through the tone shifts.
It could have been a bold satire about class divide. Instead, it feels like a social-media campaign filmed on divine overtime. By the end, the angel looks ready to hand in his halo and apply for universal credit.
Character roast – Keanu as the angel
Meet Gabriel, Heaven’s least convincing employee. He looks like a man who got lost on his way to a John Wick sequel and woke up in a soup kitchen with a spiritual script. The beard says wisdom, the eyes say “I’d rather be punching villains.”
Keanu plays the angel as if celestial HR gave him bad notes: speak softly, stare meaningfully, then vanish into existential fog. He has the aura of a saint but the confusion of someone who forgot his divine Wi-Fi password.
When he tries to bless the mortals, it feels like he’s apologising for interrupting their scenes. The wings might be invisible, but so is the energy. It’s not that he’s bad — it’s that the role demands emotional slapstick, and Keanu still fights like he’s in bullet-time therapy.
Heaven may forgive, but this casting choice won’t be redeemed anytime soon.
What does not make sense
- Comedy or tragedy? The film never picks a side.
- The swap trope between rich and poor lands like a rejected Black Mirror pitch.
- Critics keep calling it “feel-good” — but whose feelings?
- The title implies “good fortune,” yet the movie focuses on gig-worker doom and rich-person ennui — tone confusion from the start.
- Keanu Reeves cast as an angel fits his public image, but not his dramatic spine — “from punch-and-kill to homeless lost and sad angel” lacks internal logic. Keanu Reeves as an angel feels more lost than divine.
- The life-swap trope (poor ↔ rich) is old and here feels under-explored: the premise should provoke incisive critique, but instead it flirts with feel-good without the bite.
- The film tries to juggle fantasy (angel), comedy (body-swap), and bitter class commentary — all at once; the balance shifts awkwardly.
The numbers & sense check
- Director & Writer: Aziz Ansari
- Cast: Keanu Reeves (Gabriel), Aziz Ansari (Aziz/Arj), Seth Rogen (Jeff), Keke Palmer, David Alan Grier, and Beck Bennett.
- Runtime: 103 minutes (2025, Lionsgate)
- Genre: Comedy / Fantasy / Drama hybrid — marketing called it “uplifting,” critics called it “confused.”
- Budget: ~ $30 million | Box office: $6.2 million (US & Canada) (Wikipedia).
- Rotten Tomatoes: roughly 77 % positive reviews for the film | 62 % Audience — “too soft to sting” (Rotten Tomatoes).
- Critics’ major complaints: inconsistent tone and underdeveloped commentary. For example: “the message feels superficial” (AP)
- Critics’ praise: Reeves’ performance and moments of real empathy. For example: “his character … is a joy” (RogerEbert.com)
- Critical summary:
The Guardian: “A sentimental sermon with no punchline.”
AP News: “Good Fortune feels earthbound.”
RogerEbert.com: “Reeves brings grace; script forgets gravity.” - Genre confusion: marketed as comedy, but heavy on social critique + body-swap fantasy, raising question whether it is a comedy or a tragic sad parody.
The sketch – Heaven’s Focus Group
Panel 1: Angel washing mugs, halo tilted. Thought: “Next time, no wings.”
Panel 2: Angel shrugging: “Am I meant to save or joke?”
Panel 3: Producer with clipboard: “It’s a comedy… I think.”
What to watch, not the show
- The gig-economy commentary: the film attempts to show how unstable work and housing pressure shape life. But note: critics say it lacks depth. (AP News)
- Reeves’ casting: audiences expected “angelic Keanu” – and that part works. But the story around him is patchy.
- The tone: one moment screw-ball comedy, the next existential crisis of class — this shift isn’t seamless.
- The life-swap trope: cheap device to explore class, but the film seems to conclude that yes, money does solve a lot of problems — contradicting the “money won’t buy happiness” cliché.
- The final act: many say it ends on “unearned sentimentality.” (The Guardian)
The Hermit take
The film wants to be biting. It ends up being bland.
Keanu being an angel? Sure — fun in itself. But he’s the best thing in a film that half-believes its own premise.
If you didn’t already recognise his name, you might ask: why this guy, this story, now?
Verdict: Keep or Toss
Verdict: Keep the cast & moments, Toss the execution.
What to keep: Reeves’ performance; the attempt to talk about class and labour.
What to toss: the idea that the film really nails either full comedy or full critique — it lands in the awkward middle.
Good Fortune – Official Trailer (2025) Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogan, Aziz Ansari
Sources
- RogerEbert.com – Good Fortune movie review: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/good-fortune-movie-review-2025
- The Guardian – Good Fortune review: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/sep/07/good-fortune-review-aziz-ansari
- AP News – Movie Review: Good Fortune stays earthbound: https://apnews.com/article/077b04213ee5e30260ee97da0f98bd47
- Time – Good Fortune review: https://time.com/7326691/good-fortune-review/
- CinemaBlend – Critics say Keanu Reeves is angelic in Good Fortune: https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/critics-say-keanu-reeves-devilishly-angelic-good-fortune-but-do-like-supernatural-comedy-overall
- Wikipedia – Good Fortune (film) page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Fortune_(film)
- IMDB – Good Fortune (2025): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27543578/
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