I like all kinds of movies, but every now and then, it’s nice to take a break from superheroes and bro comedies and bloody horror and just…relax? The Good House is a film that has its flow of narrative intensities, but the overall experience of watching grown-up characters acting in ways that seem real? What a nice change-up.
Not to mention the great Sigourney Weaver, who is so perfect for her character that it seems she was matched up by some kind of A.I. casting machine.
Weaver plays a woman of a certain age who is the best realtor in an idyllic New England seaside town. She is sharp, on top of her game, competitive as hell (as the most successful realtors always are) and seems to know everyone in town.
She occasionally breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to us, the audience. I usually don’t like this device in film (works better onstage) but because we love Sigourney, we go with it and it isn’t overused.
But what we learn early on (and therefore, this isn’t a spoiler) is that Weaver’s character is a functioning alcoholic – a veteran drunk, if you will. It hasn’t kept her from good business, but it’s led to some embarrassing blackouts and has cost her a good relationship with her family; they stage an intervention early on.
I am saying this as a compliment: this is the kind of movie my mom would like.
If it weren’t for my mom, I wouldn’t have been raised in a cinema, watching great films from the early 1970s until now, but Mom doesn’t have Netflix or get to the cinema these days; she enjoys watching her movies on the Hallmark Channel and other similar cable channels. The movies don’t make too much noise or rely on CGI effects; they just lay out a story that takes one away for less than two hours.
Kevin Kline plays a local with whom Weaver has a grown-up, friends with benefits relationship that is low key and one of several B stories that run through. It’s a smaller role than his billing suggests, but it’s nice to see these two together.
There will be melodrama and manipulation, from a story standpoint, but things will be okay. It’s a good enough little film and I liked it. And Mom would find it worth the trip to go and see.
The Good House | 3 out of 4 Stars | In Theaters | rated R
