As a global culture, we have seemingly lost the ability to stop and watch the world as it passes us by – time moves extremely fast, and the rapid-paced lives that we live can sometimes distract us from the most beautiful and important moments that may not have much economic value, but nourish the heart and soul – and being able to pause the madness of modern existence and take in the smaller joys is vitally important to our physical and psychological wellbeing. In her second directorial outing, Hallie Meyers-Shyer (the daughter of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers, both tremendous writers and directors in their own right known for some of the most popular comedies of the past few decades) uses this concept to kickstart Goodrich, a charming comedy that follows the day-to-day life of the titular character, a highly successful art dealer and businessman who is severely lacking as far as domestic responsibilities go as a result of his busy career. When his wife informs him that she has checked into a facility to treat a drug addiction he was unaware she had, our protagonist is forced to take charge, particularly in raising his two young children. With no one else to help him, he turns to his oldest daughter, who has just begun to settle into her own sense of domestic bliss, to support him through this challenging period – but he doesn’t realize that the wounds between them are deeper and more raw than he could have ever imagined, leading to a series of conflicts in which their past tensions begin to resurface and then eventually come to be healed in the process. A film that is as simple as it is wholeheartedly moving, Goodrich is a strong effort from a director who stands in the shadows of her parents, but proves to have a unique vision of her own, which is seamlessly woven into the fabric of this film, a charming and eccentric exploration of certain resonant themes, carefully pieced together by a cast and crew dedicated to telling a story that will be recognizable to many viewers, particularly in the smallest and most subtle cues that drive it forward and make it so compelling.

The premise of Goodrich is certainly very simple, and perhaps radically familiar – the idea of an overly busy man who does his best to provide financially for his family, but isn’t there for some of the most important moments or who shifts his responsibilities onto a spouse who hides their frustrations as they try to keep everything together, is a very common concept and not one that Meyers-Shyer pioneers by any stretch of the imagination. However, the themes are nonetheless still very compelling, particularly since they are extremely recognizable in one way or another. This is ultimately a story about a family that seems perfect on the surface but is far more dysfunctional than we’d expect. The film walks quite a narrow boundary between the concept of an absent father and husband, and an intentionally neglectful one – Andy Goodrich does his best, but as the film constantly mentions (to the point where it potentially becomes its most substantial thematic refrain), your best is not good enough when it means that those around you have to pick up the slack and put in twice as much effort just to give off the illusion of the idealistic family. Meyers-Shyer picks up the cues from her parents in crafting a very resonant comedy, but above everything else conveys the clear message that the perfect family does not exist and that it is instead a constant process of working together to find the right solution to life’s inevitable problems. Fatherhood, in particular, is a fascinating theme that the film is keen to explore from several different angles, particularly in showcasing the sometimes challenging relationship between a parent and their adult children, focusing on the difficulties that come with remaining tethered, but leading entirely separate lives that come to intersect in the most unexpected of ways. Goodrich looks at a character undergoing a rude awakening and being forced into a position where his shortcomings are fully on display, which in turn motivates him to develop a stronger relationship with the people he has been neglecting for years, building the bonds that weren’t there before and hopefully doing his best to make up for lost time. It’s extremely touching, and contains some meaningful conversation that may not be entirely original, but still has enough heart to be effective.

Much like her parents, Meyers-Shyer has proven to be very capable of using her connections to attract quite a high calibre of performers, and the roles at the heart of Goodrich are fascinating enough to be alluring to several very notable actors. The film is anchored by Michael Keaton, who makes a return to this kind of subtle, character-based comedy for the first time in years, with most of the previous decade being spent experimenting with his acting style. This film hearkens back to films like Mr Mom and Multiplicity, particularly in how these are all very charming comedies about a man learning about the importance of domestic responsibilities and finding ways to meet the requirements of being a father and husband, which is logically not all that easy. Keaton is a fantastic actor, and it’s wonderful to see him doing something more simple again, particularly a role that hinges on his lovably eccentric charms – it’s not the finest work he’s done, but its consistent and has a sense of affection that we haven’t seen from him in a while. Mila Kunis plays his older daughter, and while she is arguably not as effective a performer as Keaton, she does hold her own just enough to earn attention, despite portraying a less well-written character, and one that isn’t exactly elevated by her efforts. One of the flaws we begin to notice about Goodrich is that it has quite a large cast, but only a couple of the actors are given anything valuable to do – people like Andie MacDowell and Laura Benanti appear for a single scene, delivering solid performances before quickly making their exit and leaving very little impression in the aftermath, beyond just being plot devices formed to define the main character. Actors like Kevin Pollak and Michael Urie essentially fade into the background, serving as nothing more than supporting players, and the range of other small roles just proves that Meyers-Shyer could have cut at least half the cast and focused instead on the central dynamic, rather than introducing plot points that she knew she could not follow through on to the full extent of their potential. Yet, Goodrich is worth it solely for Keaton’s wonderful performance, and he delivers exactly what he promises.

As much as there are very promising elements that define Goodrich, this film is still one that carries a few flaws, which come from the fact that Meyers-Shyer is still developing her voice as a director and hasn’t quite managed to define herself just yet, despite some very compelling qualities that suggest she has a good future ahead of her. The main problem with this film is that it doesn’t quite know what it wants to be exactly – it is certainly very compelling for the most part, but it has trouble determining whether it wants to be a wacky, off-the-wall comedy or a more intimate, meditative affair – and while there is technically nothing that precludes it from having factoring both into the narrative, the film is simply too narrow in its intentions to have the space to accomplish everything, leading to the main flaw being the indecisiveness in terms of tone, which eventually leads to a less impactful delivery of some of its more daring ideas. To her credit, the director was not attempting to reinvent the genre in any substantial way – Goodrich is an extremely straightforward comedy about a father forced to change course and step into his domestic responsibilities, which starts as a series of predictable pratfalls but eventually flourishes into a more meaningful endeavour. However, it doesn’t excuse some of the predictable elements that seem to exist because Meyers-Shyer wasn’t willing to push further than the conventions around which the film orbits – it hits all the expected notes, doing so in the kind of quick succession that can only come from working within a genre that has been mostly defined by the same overall set of qualities and following familiar patterns down to the smallest detail. It can veer towards the overly sentimental on more than one occasion, which is justified considering the content of the film, but only when it has a substantial grip on its themes, which is more always the case here. Far too many moments register as heavy-handed, which can soften the impact made by the film, slightly letting it down. However, despite these shortcomings, Goodrich still manages to be compelling in its way, just struggling to meet the goals it seemed to have had in mind at the outset. 

Goodrich is a peculiar film for several reasons, but the less we try and rationalize its existence by attempting to place it into a specific mould, and instead take it at face value, the sooner we begin to find the merits that are lurking beneath the surface. Meyers-Shyer has made a solid, middle-of-the-road comedy that presents itself as an offbeat exploration of fatherhood and gradually peels away several different layers to show the depth of its ideas. Obviously, this is sometimes quite one-dimensional, since the director is still developing her voice – and it can even be argued that she depends too much on the formulae that were the hallmark of her parents’ films – but there is still a lot of value in this film, and it isn’t difficult to find them with some attention. Goodrich is a film that does tend to play in quite a minor key for the most part, and it never entirely forms its vision as much as it could have, given the material – but there’s a quiet charm that sits right at the core of the film, giving it enough heart and soul to earn our attention and respect, giving us a real sense of honesty that makes it quite endearing, even at its most predictable. Upbeat and motivating without being too overwrought (even though it does tend to have some unnecessarily sickly-sweet moments, which add very little to the film), the film is worth seeking out to see Keaton doing something familiar but captivating, which is perhaps as good a reason as any for this film to exist, even if we know it could have achieved much more than what was presented on the surface.