Just who the hell is Zach Braff? Yeah, yeah, I know who he is but first allow me to blow away some personal…prejudices.
I mean, he's a funny guy. We all know him and love him as J.D. from the hit TV series Scrubs (2001-2010). Then the guy goes all auteur on us, writing and directing his first motion picture, Garden State (2004), a quirky, original and extremely enjoyable little comedic drama that actually made money, go figure. Nevertheless, in my mind he's still the guy from Scrubs who's got a pretty good movie under his belt.
Jump-cut to 2023: I saw a film today that had no shootouts, no chase scenes, no aliens, no superheroes, no explosions and only one car crash. What it did have is great acting from the entire ensemble, especially the magnificent performances by the incredible Florence Pugh and dare-I-say national treasure Morgan Freeman. A beautiful, down-to-earth film set in New Jersey titled A Good Person (2023) about the aforementioned car crash, the people and the families involved, specifically the driver of the vehicle, and how they cope with the incident and more. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes grim, with the light occasionally breaking through, it may sometimes lean into melodrama but nevertheless remains grounded. The film shows that when our lives fall apart, despite the proverbial best laid plans (demonstrated in Freeman's character Daniel and his model railroad), there is no manual on how to reassemble the pieces. Sometimes the pieces no longer even fit together.
"But, Mongoose, baby…who made this bittersweet drama?", I know you're asking. Well, it was written and directed by Zach Braff. This is my formal apology: no longer will I first think of Braff from Scrubs but instead "Oh, that talented, sometimes brilliant screenwriter/director/actor who tells life-size stories."
Oh, it's not perfect: the Amor Fate plot thread seemed either an afterthought or an undeveloped idea left in the final cut. I did initially question Daniel's decision to not let Allison (Pugh's character) leave the therapy group but instead invite her to stay. I don't know if I would be so welcoming to someone who changed my life so unexpectedly and drastically, were I ever in a similar situation. Maybe that says more about me than the film. With any luck, I hope I (and by extension, you) never have to find out.
I ask you, how is it that Braff has written and directed only three films with tiny budgets since 2004 —one apparently Kickstarter-funded!—when directors like M. Night Shayamalan are allowed big-budget low-brow turkey after turkey?—we'll get into that specific topic another time soon.
I'm now a Braff fan. What's next?
