‘Goodrich’ Review: Michael Keaton Is A Man Punished For Not Giving His Women More Attention

Jacob Smith |

Oct 28, 2024

A story that is as old as the beginning of time begins like this: A highly successful man is dedicated to his job in order to provide for his family. However, his family resents him because he spends too much time with his job and not enough time with them. This eventually leads to the family turning on the man, leaving him with nothing but his job.

It may seem a bit too simplified but in reality, Goodrich is the story of a man who was guilty of the sin of not giving the women in his life enough attention. Michael Keaton stars as a husband and a father named Andy who wakes up in the middle of the night to a phone call from his wife. She has checked herself into a rehab facility for 90 days and she refuses to make contact with him during that time period.

Andy is forced to take care of the couple’s young 9-year-old twins. As Andy struggles with understanding how he’s found himself in this situation, he realizes that he hasn’t been as present as he thought he was. It seems like everyone in town knew about his wife’s drug problem except for him.

He now has to pick up the pieces of his life by trying to reconcile a relationship with his adult daughter, played by Mila Kunis, along with trying to keep his struggling business afloat during one of the most trying times in his life. There’s something to be said about going back to an old-school style of filmmaking – or at the very least an old-school style of storytelling.

When it comes to smaller roles that allow him to be more character-driven, Keaton is usually pretty solid at being the leading man of a story. That’s definitely the case here in Goodrich.

The film allows Keaton to play with elements of both comedy and drama through the lens of a successful art gallery owner whose life is seemingly falling apart, yet the only one who is surprised by it is himself. Mila Kunis plays his daughter Grace, an expectant mother struggling with the resentment of never getting the relationship with her dad that his newer children have received.

On one hand, the film is certainly a movie that, whether intentionally or not, highlights the importance of having a father figure in one’s life and the damage an absentee dad can do to a family. However, there’s one glaring flaw with the story: Keaton’s character seems to be a pretty decent guy.

Andy Goodrich’s life is upended when his wife enters a rehab program, leaving him on his own with their young kids in *Goodrich* (2024), C2

Andy is not neglecting his family because he doesn’t care about them, he is simply too busy trying to manage his multi-million dollar business to give them the attention that they need. If anything, he is guilty of unintentionally making poor decisions that affect those around him.

When the film goes out of its way to make him seem like the villain of the story, the audience is not seeing a man who is causing a wedge in his family out of malice. In a lot of ways, you can consider Goodrich to be a Hollywood Hallmark movie through the lens of a Los Angeles Elite.

The target audience of this film will certainly be those looking for more wholesome content. The film is not going to be relatable to the overwhelming majority as there’s not much in common between your average moviegoer and a multi-millionaire living and dealing with life the way people in Los Angeles do.

Most families don’t have nannies, a big house, multiple families, or an uber progressive clientele like many who live in the upper class of California seem to have. In a lot of ways, this is a story that mirrors the upbringing of the writer and the director Hallie Meyers-Shyer, who is the child of two parents well-known in the entertainment industry.

This is a story that certainly hits home for Hallie. She may be on the island by herself when it comes to connecting with anyone else. Goodrich is certainly a solid film that in essence is a stroll down memory lane when it comes to the simplicity of Hollywood storytelling, but don’t expect anything more than that.