In 1983, Michael Keaton played a hapless dad left at home to care for his young children after his wife went back to work in Mr. Mom. More than 40 years later, Keaton is playing a hapless dad left at home to care for his young children after his wife goes to rehab in Goodrich.
Surface similarities aside, Keaton once again finds himself playing caretaker in Goodrich, albeit with much different stakes and far less goofy comedy than he did four decades ago. This time around, he is Andy Goodrich, a struggling art gallery owner whose clients’ works no longer command the price tags they once did. With his profits dwindling and gallery rent increasing, Andy has been checked out of his marriage to second wife Naomi (Laura Benati) for so long that he fails to notice that she developed a crippling addition to pills. When Naomi phones him to say she’s checked herself into a 90-day rehab program, he’s left floundering as the sole provider to their two young children.
Written and directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer, Andy is a compelling character for Keaton. An older man with a younger wife, he’s been given a second chance at marriage and fatherhood that he’s squandered. The actor plays Andy as a man who must overcome his stubbornness and listen to what those around him are saying. He’s charming, which is perhaps why he’s been afforded the luxury of coasting along in life while his first and second wives did most of the emotional and physical parenting. Keaton has a resume filled with roles that rely on him being charming, whether that’s as the ghost with the most, Beetlejuice, or as Bruce Wayne in Batman. He employs that same energy here, although the cracks are starting to show as Andy’s successful facade fades.
Just like the character he played 40 years ago in Mr. Mom, Andy doesn’t know where to begin with his young kids. He’s always been a “hands off” kind of father, leading to a strained relationship with his pregnant adult daughter, Grace (Mila Kunis). A nice change of role for Kunis, the actress is able to branch out into something other than the broad comedy roles she’s played in recent years. She really gets a chance to shine opposite Keaton here and is one of the best parts of Goodrich.
Though an adult now, Grace sees Andy’s attempt to transform into the kind of dad she never had. Despite their differences and distance, she reluctantly wishes to develop that relationship with him now. But their relationship and Grace is more complicated than that as the years of hurt and envy at his bonding with her half-siblings building up to a breaking point.
In a surprise turn, the film’s emotional core doesn’t truly come from Keaton, but his reaction to it. While in the hospital delivery room, Grace’s husband Pete (Danny Deferrari) delivers a genuine speech that will tug at the heartstrings. Andy’s reaction here finally connects the pieces of his life and the movie’s trajectory together. Perhaps most surprisingly, at its core, Goodrich isn’t about a floundering man: it’s about the complex dynamics of a father-daughter relationship.
Surrounding its stars with solid supporting performers that include Kevin Pollak, Carmen Ejogo, Michael Urie, and Keaton’s Multiplicity co-star Andie MacDowell, it is hard to find fault with Goodrich. Competently made and enjoyable, it’s simply a nice movie that doesn’t challenge the viewer much. It’s the kind of movie you’d watch to pass the time, smile at its pleasantness, and then completely forget about it.