Good Grief | Film Review

After losing his husband, Marc (Daniel Levy) takes his best friends Sophie (Ruth Negga) and Thomas (Himesh Patel) to Paris, where discoveries are made and secrets are revealed.

I was really excited to see this film. I loved the trailer and thought it would be a really hard-hitting, emotional watch.

Unfortunately, I didn't like the movie as much as I wanted to.

From the start, it wasn't as engaging as I needed it to be.

It almost felt like it should have been based on a book or previous movie - something that would allow the audience to already know the characters. Because the film didn't really give us a chance to get to know them, but treated us like we already did.

The premise definitely got more interesting as the film went on, but it took a turn that surprised me, and I'm still not sure if I liked it.

I loved the use of grief to explore the theme of friendship, and kind of wished the grief was explored a bit more before the little twist came.

I think it's great when stories about hard topics use humour, and when the film does that it works well. I just wish they had leaned on humour a bit more.

I never took either a liking or a disliking to any of the characters, I just never really cared about them. And that includes the main character.

It is poignant, but this aspect works best when it's not trying to be. There were a few times when it felt clear that lines were written specifically to evoke an emotion, which didn't always feel genuine to me.

Overall, I didn't get everything out of this film that I wanted. I understand what it was supposed to be, and didn't hate it, but I probably won't watch it again.

5.5/10