Movie Review: Goodrich (2024) seen in theatres

Drama; not recommended for young children; mature themes, some coarse language, intense emotional scenes including scenes of possible emancipation from parents, scenes which discuss neglect at young ages, some medical images including pregnancy/childbirth, mild sexual language including scenes depicting homosexuality, and implied drug use

This movie follows an art dealer, (played by Michael Keaton,) whose wife checks into a 90 day rehab facility following her intention for divorce from him. He is left to care for his two young children despite showing that he has minimal knowledge of what it takes to be a parent. Meanwhile his adult daughter, (who is presumed to be his stepdaughter from a previous marriage although this is not confirmed throughout the film,) is pregnant and forced to assist him in babysitting the two younger children while voicing her dislike for the way she was brought up by him as he was never there for her due to work obligations.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen Michael Keaton in a movie other than Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, (blog for this movie has already been written,) but one where he plays himself and is actually shown as himself. He was big in some movies as I was growing up but then he seemed to fall off the radar as I got older and he wasn’t shown in a lot of movies. This was a real treat to see him for me as he is a source of nostalgia. Anyway, this movie seems to present a trope as far as I’m concerned. It plays the “father who is not used to being around his children only to be forced to watch them and eventually admit he has no idea what he is doing or how to care for them,” trope really well. As a matter of fact, the whole first part of this movie, he was shown to be clueless about how to interact with his kids and his oldest daughter shows signs of not wanting to be in his life at first mainly because he disapproves of her choice in men. However, one scene I have to disagree with is the scene with the homosexual kiss. By that, I mean man on man. Throughout my life, the idea of sexual preference has really played a key role in my anxiety especially where my first relationship was concerned. Most people don’t know this about me but I spent the better part of my last 34 years trying to convince myself that there was such a thing as heterosexuality as in my mind, every woman who had a female friend was considered to be homosexual. I have to be honest in saying that the movies which I preferred to watch didn’t really help matters and at one point, one of these movies, (Chloe, 2009) really seemed to get on my nerves. This movie has not been reviewed and it’s likely I will never review it as it caused me some trouble in my personal life if this makes any sense. Anyway, though the rest of this movie was good despite being emotional, I was disgusted by the scene with the homosexual kiss. At this point, I knew what I was going to rate this movie if it went further than that but thankfully it didn’t. To be fair it seemed like Michael Keaton’s luck with the women up to that point was leading to that possible conclusion. Throughout the movie, most of his problems stemmed from women including those closest to him, (his wife, his young daughter and especially his pregnant daughter,) while he seemed to strike up a more positive relationship with a man. This seems a little convenient. A man whose wife leaves him while both of his daughters seem to have a hard time getting through to him is shown to have a better relationship with a man, one who respects him more than the women in his life. This movie also plays on what I believe is a cliche. “Female character who is shown to be pregnant at the beginning of the movie eventually gives birth in the final moments of the film.” cliche. This was something that happened in this movie. Throughout the course of this film, his oldest daughter is pregnant and gives birth by the end of the film right after she reconciles with Michael Keaton’s character who ends up with a granddaughter thus adding another female to his life. There was a scene that described what I go through almost day, one that mom would laugh at. Upon hearing that his wife was entering rehab, he continuously calls his daughter as she is in the middle of her ultrasound despite her sending his constant calls to voicemail. As is the case in my situation, when mom, (the person who I call like this which gets on her nerves,) finally answers the calls having missed multiple from me, it is either met with annoyance over the numerous missed calls beforehand, usually with her telling me to wait to return the call if she doesn’t answer the first time, or she will answer and tell me, “I’m just leaving (insert place, although this is mostly work,) I’ll call you back when I get in the car/I said I would call you later so why did you call me now?” ETC. Despite hearing this, most of the time, I will stupidly continue the conversation by changing the topic. This entire scenario takes place in the movie with his daughter saying she will call him back on her way out of the doctor’s office only for him to continue the conversation despite hearing her say she will call him back. This means I have something in common with this movie and I’m sure if mom was to see this movie, she would equate this situation to me and her and she might get a good laugh at it. I know I did as it is a very relatable scene to her as she tends to go through it every day with me.

So even though this movie does have it’s ups and downs, I have to say it was a really good one. It was one of those movies that I wasn’t sure I wanted to see and I will say this, it is very emotional at times but I have to say that I’m glad I did.

Movie rating: 10 out of 10

Next movie review: TBD although something on DVD or a streaming service