Good Grief follows Marc (Dan Levy) after he tragically loses his husband, Oliver, and turns to his friends to help process his grief. Over a year, he begins to learn more about himself, and who his husband truly was.
Regarding directing debuts, this is an excellent entry for Levy. I appreciated how he set up certain scenes and shots and most of his writing worked. I think at times the writing was a bit lackluster and sometimes the emotions didn’t hit me as hard as I would’ve hoped for. I think maybe it was just a mindset issue for me and if I were going through something similar to what Marc did, it would’ve hit a lot harder.
I think part of why the emotional moments lacked a bit is because we barely got to see Marc and Oliver together before he died. We get maybe 10ish minutes to start and a few flashbacks of them together but that’s it. A lot of the deeper scenes are about how much Oliver loved Marc and never wanted to hurt him but we never got to see that love.
The movie is incredibly charming. It’s very grounded and subtle and Levy eats all his screentime. The supporting cast with Ruth Negga and Himesh Patel are also incredibly charming and likable. But this was a great performance for Levy and he proved that he is more than capable of leading an emotional romantic drama.
Grief is an emotion we all feel, have felt, or will feel in the future. I like how the movie focused on his friendships as his catalyst as he calls himself an “orphan and a widow”. It’s the people closest to him that guide him through this very intimate and raw time of his life. My one critique here is that a love interest is introduced and he delivers the weight of the message, which I wish was reserved for his friends.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Good Grief is a movie I might end up being higher on than most. Dan Levy showed that he could hang behind the camera, and in front of it, he thrived. I liked the themes and how the movie handled it. The pacing is a bit slow but I think it’s worth the watch.
