For his feature film directorial bow, Aziz Ansari examines the current state of the American Dream through the throwback lens of It’s a Wonderful Life by way of Trading Places. While the homage is heartfelt, and certainly packs its share of genuine laughs, the end result can’t escape feeling like a hodgepodge, incapable of cohesively blending the satirical elements with the earnest messaging foremost on its mind.

Fortunately for Good Fortune, it has Keanu Reeves as a “budget guardian angel” who’s itching to do more with his celestial existence than prevent mortals from texting while driving. Summoning those deadpan days of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Parenthood, Reeves’ determined but out-of-his-depths Gabriel consistently scores as the film’s comedic secret weapon.

Good Fortune

The Bottom Line

Funny comedy, awkward moralizing.

Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Gala Presentations)
Release date: Friday, Oct. 17
Cast: Seth Rogen, Aziz Ansari, Kiki Palmer, Sandra Oh, Keanu Reeves
Director, screenwriter: Aziz Ansari
Rated R,
1 hour 38 minutes

Given the following Ansari has cultivated from Master of None and Parks and Recreation, moviegoers could be willing to embrace those good intentions when the film, which received its world premiere at TIFF, lands in theaters October 17. The collective audience setting would seem a better fit for that throwback vibe than the more conventional streaming route.

Visually very much a valentine to the City of Angels, the proceedings kick off with Reeves’ low-order, angel-in-training perched atop L.A.’s Griffith Observatory surveying the socially inequitable lay of the land below. Outfitted with an undersized pair of wings and a shabby raincoat, Gabriel, with his scraggly beard and unkempt long dark hair, feels he’s ready for more meaningful divine intervention. But as Martha (Sandra Oh), his no-nonsense angelic commanding officer explains, “to save a lost soul you first have to find a lost soul.”

That would turn out to be Arj (Ansari), a budding documentary editor who has been struggling to make ends meet as a gig worker, padding a part-time job at the Hardware Heaven home improvement store with running thankless tasks for the TaskSergeant app, like waiting in line for two hours to pick up a trendy cinnamon bun for an impatient client. Arj is about to pack it in when he’s dispatched to clean up the garage at the posh Bel Air home of Jeff (Seth Rogen), a wildly successful venture capitalist. The two hit it off and Arj becomes Jeff’s personal assistant. But when he’s caught using Jeff’s corporate card to pay for a dinner date with Elena (Keke Palmer), a Hardware Heaven sales associate, Jeff sacks him, and he’s back to living out of his car.

Alas, Garbriel’s plan to make like Clarence from It’s A Wonderful Life and show Arj how much better his existence is than Jeff’s by having them switch lives for a week ends up backfiring: Arj prefers the new arrangement and refuses to switch back. Money may not ultimately buy happiness, but you sure can rent it for a while. For messing up, Martha clips Gabriel’s wings, forcing him to live life as a human, with a new casual wardrobe to match and a taste for fast food.

Watching Reeves’ Gabriel go from wide-eyed babe in the woods learning how to chew hamburgers for the first time to beaten-down laborer (“I used to be a celestial being and now I’m a chain-smoker”) pays comic dividends. But the rest of the film, also penned by Ansari, is less consistent. Although his desire to pay homage to the “message movies” of Frank Capra and Preston Sturges is honorable, the comedy and the social commentary struggle to coexist here, with the former frequently getting clunkily disrupted by the latter.

Unfortunately, the bulk of the requisite moralizing falls mainly to Palmer’s socially conscious Elena, saddled with one too many speeches about making a difference, which puts a damper on the actress’ customary energetic spark. It would have also been nice if Ansari had taken more advantage of Oh’s always-welcome presence (she has just a few brief scenes).

Still, thanks to the engaging ensemble and the breezily improvised feel to many of its funnier line readings, Good Fortune coasts along agreeably on all those good intentions.