Himesh Patel and Daniel Levy in ‘Good Grief’
| Photo Credit: Netflix/YouTube
After a couple of disquieting films and shows, this gentle excursion into love and loss that wraps you in its designer arms like a fluffy jersey or a hot bowl of soup is just what the doctor ordered on this unusually gloomy January evening in Bengaluru.
Good Grief
Director: Daniel Levy
Cast: Daniel Levy, Ruth Negga, Himesh Patel, Celia Imrie, David Bradley, Arnaud Valois, Luke Evans
Run time: 100 minutes
Storyline: A man loses his husband and has to come to terms with loss, betrayal and hurt
Marc (Daniel Levy) is enjoying himself at a Christmas party in London (can there be anything prettier, as Chandler would say). An artist, Marc is happily married to Oliver (Luke Evans), a phenomenally talented and successful author. Marc’s friends, Thomas (Himesh Patel), a gallery owner, and Sophie (Ruth Negga), a fashion designer (she is designing for a Keira Knightley film), are also at the party. Oliver organises a sing-along composed by another friend, who has just won an Academy Award for his score, and rushes to the airport to catch an early flight to Paris for a book signing.
Marc’s life comes to a screeching halt when the cab Oliver is travelling in crashes, killing him instantly. Sophie and Thomas put their lives on hold to help Marc through the terrible time. On meeting his financial adviser, Imelda (Celia Imrie), Marc realises he didn’t know Oliver as well as he had to. Close to the first anniversary of Oliver’s death, Marc finally gathers the courage to open the Christmas card Oliver had given him before setting off on his ill-fated Paris trip.
Oliver’s letter devastates Marc, and he decides to go with Thomas and Sophie on an extravagant trip to Paris. In Paris, the three confront their deepest fears — Sophie, her commitment phobia, Thomas, his under-confidence, and Marc, his habit of pushing all troubles under various convenient carpets. That the friends do it on a Ferris wheel in the City of Lights is just one more level of self-awareness you are willing to let pass as the film is so good-looking and well-intentioned.
The houses are lovely, the clothes are drop-dead gorgeous, as is all the well-meaning cast. Arnaud Valois as Theo, the amiable, hot, or should I say haute French man Marc meets during a party for not-very-good performance artists, which includes the flavour of the season, Emma Corrin. Knitting a violent, red thing, she is so good looking that it hurts the eye. As is Jamael Westman playing Terrance, who is the long-suffering beau of Sophie.
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Good Grief is not “cloying well-intentioned” as Thomas’ ex-boyfriend’s pornography-as-art, but neither does it rive your soul in two. Daniel Levy, in his directorial debut, has created a handsome, well-acted movie about beautiful, well-heeled, successful, and talented people in sparkling, elegant cities, and that is not a hanging crime.
Good Grief is currently streaming on Netflix