Good Fortune

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https://www.palacecinemas.com.au/movies/good-fortune

Date Reviewed: 28/10/2025

Good Fortune takes a couple of well-worn movie plots and combines them to try and give us something a little fresher. In this case, a movie about an angel teaching a human a valuable message, combined with a body swap, or more accurately – lifestyle swap storyline (think Trading Places).

From debut director Aziz Ansari (Tom Haverford in TV’s Parks and Recreation), who is also the writer and star in this feel-good comedy; Good Fortune works on multiple levels. Ansari has written a script where every character is likeable and only continue to improve themselves as people. This helps to keep the viewer metaphorically cheering for them, wanting to see more scenes of them, and wanting things to work out for them. And when this occurs, the people are going to leave happy.

Ansari as hard-working, but cash-strapped, Arj and Seth Rogen (Knocked Up, Bad Neighbours) as business mogul Jeff, are the characters that end up switching lives via the powers of well-meaning, but incompetent, guardian angel, Gabriel (Keanu Reeves, John Wick, The Matrix). With an aim of improving the importance of his work in the angel community and gaining more job satisfaction; Gabriel works outside of his allocated position description, to try and teach Arj that “money can’t buy happiness”. Swapping Arj’s life of financial hardship for Jeff’s life of luxury, Gabriel aims to show Arj that he will lose aspects of what makes Arj the person he is, and inherit the problems that Jeff has, which aren’t as noticeable on the surface.

But Gabriel lacks the foresight to see that the slight inconveniences of Jeff's lifestyle will not be enough to convince Arj to do what is morally right, and swap back. And until Arj voluntarily does this, not only will Jeff unfairly be stuck leading Arj’s “modest” lifestyle, but Gabriel will also have his angel-powers revoked, leaving him to experience life as a human for the first time. Cue hijinks.

Ansari has primarily been a comic actor in supporting roles, and while most of his role here is the same, being a lead affords him the opportunity to show a bit more range. While he hasn’t yet proven that he is the second coming of Robert Downey Jr, he does a good job showing that he can do a bit more than just the comedy that we’ve seen before. Seth Rogen plays a toned-down version of most of his other roles, and even though his spoilt, rich kid character is a bit delusional, he’s ultimately a good person. This leaves the movie without an antagonist, other than ‘the hardship of life’, and therefore increases the importance of Reeves’ role, as the one who drives the story.

In place of a villain, Reeves’ Gabriel creates the drama. This trouble-making character is usually the one the viewer will dislike, but it’s the opposite here. While Ansari and Rogen are known for their comedic chops, most of the laughs have been given to Reeves. His naivety and childlike behaviour as a “new human” are what viewers are likely to remember long after the movie ends. And even without a long history in comedy, Reeves works well in the Gabriel role. Part of this is his acting, and part is Ansari writing the role specifically for him. This is another feather in the cap of Ansari, The Writer.

An interesting thing is how Reeves has changed the game when it comes to character appearance. Basically, if you want Keanu in your movie, you have to accept Wick Keanu, no matter what. He could be playing Elvis Presley, Santa Claus, or Romeo Montague, it doesn't matter, you’re getting the Baba Yaga. No actor has bought into one of his iconic character’s looks more, except for maybe Jeff Bridges with The Big Lebowski. That guy actually is The Dude now.

While there is nothing groundbreaking with the camera use, FX, or imagery; the movie looks good, clearly displaying the highs and lows of life based on wealth and guiding the viewer to draw the conclusions that the Ansari wants you to do. The soundtrack also smartly has a lot of popular party songs, which again add to the feel-good vibe of the whole production.

Good Fortune is not a side-splitting, laughfest, but it is humorous enough, entertaining, and as mentioned before – a feel-good experience. It doesn’t quite do its intended job of telling us that “money doesn’t buy happiness”, but as I reckon money does go a long way to doing so, I’m ok with not over-doing this idyllic message. 

Reviewed by Dion Gaunt