A Good Person

The title description refers to nobody in A Good Person, yet it’s what every character aspires to become.

However, despite an excellent cast, this melodrama from director Zach Braff (Garden State) strains to be profound, with heavy-handed sentimentality overshadowing any noble intentions. And it feels more familiar than fresh in portraying fractured family dynamics through a cycle of guilt, grief, regret, and reconciliation.

As the film opens, tragedy strikes Allison (Florence Pugh), a musician engaged to Nathan (Chinaza Uche). Glancing at her phone in traffic, Allison causes an accident that kills her Nathan’s sister and brother-in-law.

Shifting forward one year, we learn that for both families, the incident has added physical pain to existing emotional wounds that have persisted for generations.

With the engagement broken off, Allison is addicted to painkillers, hopelessly enabled by her single mother (Molly Shannon). When her prescription expires, she desperately hashes out some embarrassing schemes that squander her dignity.

Meanwhile, Nathan’s estranged father Daniel (Morgan Freeman) is a hard-nosed recovering alcoholic and model train enthusiast who reluctantly tries to parent his precocious but rebellious teenage granddaughter (Celeste O’Connor).

Allison and Daniel bump into one another at group therapy, the first of several awkward encounters that prompt a mutual realization of the shared power of healing. Eventually, Allison comes to terms with what’s ahead. “I don’t know how to do this — start all over,” she explains in a blunt moment of clarity. “I’m not sure I have the will.”

The film provides another showcase for the versatile Pugh (Don’t Worry Darling), who generates hard-earned sympathy for an abrasive character who’s stubborn but fragile. Meanwhile, the esteemed Freeman gives Daniel an authoritative presence and a sense of gut-wrenching gravitas that masks the internal vulnerability of a proud yet broken man.

There are moments of genuine poignancy in this exploration of an extended family torn apart by self-medication, lingering hostility, and an inability to process its pain while coming to terms with the past.

Still, Braff’s calculated screenplay hits some predictable emotional beats as we wait for Allison to hit rock bottom and begin her inevitable climb toward catharsis. The final act strains credibility while trying to tie together its parallel stories of redemption.

As it charts a path toward hope amid the heartbreak, A Good Person ultimately lacks the subtlety to match its sincerity.

Rated R, 129 minutes.