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<\/p>\n\n\tPoaching elements from movies like Heaven Can Wait, Oh God, and It\u2019s A Wonderful Life to life-switchers like Trading Places, and then mixing in the social consciousness of Preston Sturges socially conscious comedies of the \u201940s like Sullivan\u2019s Travels, and you have the recipe for a contemporary take on the kind of lighthearted fantasies Hollywood digs up every now and then, but now perfectly timed for a world divided even more grossly into the haves and have-nots.<\/p>\n
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\n\tAziz Ansari<\/a>, making his feature directorial debut, writes and stars as Arj, an L.A. gig economy guy who just can\u2019t get a break, working various dead-end jobs but dreaming of breaking into the entertainment business when by happenstance he meets Jeff (Seth Rogen<\/a>), a super rich tech company mogul who basically is now living the easy life from his Bel Air home\u2019s ultra modern sauna, planning to hire a shaman to take him on an ayahuasca journey, and finding someone to organize his garage. Into his life for the latter comes Arj (Ansari), clearly impressed by the immense naked wealth and lifestyle. Arj talks his way into becoming Jeff\u2019s assistant, at least for a week-long tryout, but after doing great, blows it when he uses Jeff\u2019s credit card to pay for a $300 dinner with his girlfriend, Elena (Keke Palmer<\/a>), whom he met working with her in lumber at a home improvement store. Back to his own miserable existence, living out of his car, things couldn\u2019t be worse until angel-in-training Gabriel (Keanu Reeves<\/a>) comes roaring in to save him\u2014or so he thinks. He has been charged by boss Martha (Sandra Oh<\/a>) with overseeing the lowly texting and driving department, but more ambitiously aims to earn his senior wings by using Arj as his prime target, trying to convince him that money can\u2019t buy happiness. It doesn\u2019t go well, especially as, in pure It\u2019s A Wonderful Life -style, he shows Arj his future life in what turns out to be a very bad example of \u201chappiness\u201d including living with Elena, her mother, sister and sister\u2019s boyfriend in cramped quarters. So he makes a deal. He will prove his point and switch Arj for Jeff. Suddenly Arj is living the life of luxury and money, and Jeff is his assistant. For a good while, it becomes apparent money can buy happiness, as Arj adjusts quickly, but Jeff, once he gets what has happened, demands they be switched back, offering Arj $200,000 to do it. The only catch according to Gabriel is that Arj has to want to go back. And adding to the complications, Martha, very disappointed in Gabriel\u2019s handling of all this, pulls the nascent angel\u2019s wings and makes him human until the whole mess is fixed.<\/p>\n \n\tWeaved into this hilarious situation is some serious stuff. Ansari\u2019s main idea was to show the gig economy, and those stuck on the lower end of the economic scale\u2019s struggles just to say alive. In between all the jokes, the film stops more than once to basically lecture on this sad state of affairs, an admirable Sturges-like approach that gets laid on thick, perhaps too thick to merge successfully with the largely comedic rhythm Ansari has established so well.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\tStill, it is hard for me to complain when we see what our current government is doing to workers just trying to get by, keep a day job, and provide for their family. Maybe a mainstream comedy like this can serve a purpose in keeping the plight of guys like Arj front and center. I doubt that when Ansari wrote this film, he could imagine immigrants showing up at Home Depot for work getting captured like murderers by masked ICE agents, but it certainly would have fit into his scenario, especially since a key workplace for this is Hardware Heaven. Somehow, Good Fortune<\/a>\u2018s good intentions seem more timely than ever.<\/p>\n \n\tThe overall mission here though is to entertain, an actual comedy designed to be theatrical, not streaming, but just like the old days, one that more than delivers enough laughs to make watching it in a full theater, like I did at its Toronto<\/a> Film Festival premiere Saturday night, contagiously fun. And boy do we need it now. <\/p>\n \n\tAnsari, who had some rough times bringing this to the screen, including the strikes that shut it down for months, and another aborted film that was cancelled due to the antics of its star, proves he has the chops to transfer what he did so successfully in his Emmy winning Master Of None, to the big screen as well. Casting himself in the lead was inspired as this role fits like a glove and his comic timing is Eddie Murphy-level great. Rogen too is perfectly cast as a nice guy whose main concern is getting his pool heater fixed, but suddenly finds himself delivering food. Best of all though is Reeves, channeling his own 1989 comic past from Bill & Ted\u2019s Excellent Adventure or a bit of Todd Higgins from Parenthood to bring deadpan delight as the well-meaning but constantly screwing up angel trying to do good but being so bad at it.<\/p>\n \n\tKay Lee\u2019s production design is another plus, especially turning Rogen\u2019s garish ultra modern home into a character all itself. Adam Newport-Berra\u2019s sparkling cinematography perfectly captures the highest and lowest economies of Los Angeles, which is nice to see again in all its glory on the movie screen.<\/p>\n \n\tProducers are Ansari, Anthony Katagas, and Alan Yang. <\/p>\n