Goodrich

Michael Keaton comes across as a genuinely nice guy in the story of a struggling gallery owner left to look after nine-year-old twins when his second wife checks into rehab. This was a surprisingly good movie, largely by being surprising in the story itself, confounding our expectations. We expect this to be a comedy of errors as our hero is completely out of his depth looking after the kids. And there is a bit of this but the story soon moves on. We expect a surprise, last-minute reprieve for the gallery but that doesn’t happen either. And we expect some sort of reconciliation with his first or second families and again it sort of happens but not completely. This is life, with all its regrets and messy outcomes told by characters with a lot of heart.

My favourite exchange (of many great ones) :

Grown-up daughter – “I’m sorry I said those things”

Dad – “that’s okay, you were hormonal”

Grown-up daughter – “No, I meant it, I just shouldn’t have said it“

A great, slow burn film that is well worth watching.