Allison (Florence Pugh) is involved in a car accident that turns her life upside down overnight. A year later, we find the girl in a desperate state, addicted to pain pills. She struggles to cope with the pain of remembering what happened. The accident not only claimed the lives of people close to her, but also completely destroyed her happy and cloudless existence. In a moment of complete desperation, she is reached by the father of her ex-fiancé (Morgan Freeman), with whom she had not the best relationship.
The plot of the film seems familiar to the viewer to the pain. How many films have been made about people who became addicted after some life shock and reached the point of no return suddenly began to change, meeting a wonderful savior or mentor on their way. Surprisingly, "The Good Man" offers us a new look at the battered plot. The film works because it is primarily sincere and does not try to flirt with the viewer, showing what is hard to believe, as it happened in the film For Leslie directed by Michael Morris, where the weak character overnight, a couple of days hugging a faience friend turned into a completely different person. The film is emotional and sometimes even makes you cry, so Florence Pugh ("The Sunshine", "Little Women") manages to get used to the role of a heartbroken girl. With her we live the loss, the pain and the enduring sense of guilt that lies a heavy burden on her shoulders.
Florence Pugh almost single-handedly pulls the film with unsurpassed acting, despite the fact that her partner in the film was Morgan Freeman himself. It seems that 85-year-old Freeman exists in the film only to give weight to the film, which, unfortunately, is not his best role. With his velvety and beloved voice, the narrative begins and ends, as if enveloping the film and complementing it.
The plot at times sags, some scenes are too melodramatic, and the secondary characters do not reach the level of Pugh and Freeman, but despite this, there are unexpected plot twists that could not be foreseen and thus the film retains stability and keeps the intrigue until the very end.
The camera work of Mauro Fiore (Avatar, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Training Day) will not leave anyone indifferent, because although the story is just about the suffering of a girl in a small town, the film is strikingly cinematic. Those camera solutions that Fiore chose to depict the emotional experiences of the heroine help the viewer to immerse himself in her state and empathize with her.
Zach Braff, familiar to the viewer primarily for the role of a young doctor John Dorian in the series “Clinic”, has already tried himself as a director, but his work was passable and unremarkable. “Country of Gardens” starring Natalie Portman, “Leave Beautiful” starring Morgan Freeman and even an episode of the acclaimed series “Ted Lasso”, for which he received an Emmy award – not a complete list of his works, but in “The Good Man” you can clearly see how the director Braff grew up and although this film is unlikely to bring him a nomination for a prestigious award, this is probably his best directorial work.