Good Grief (2023)
“As it turns out… to avoid sadness… is also to avoid love. That hindsight is a discomfort that you will forever mistake for indigestion.”
Good Grief is a film about loss, friendship, grief, anger, and the mixture between those and so many other emotions. It’s a reminder that life and loss are never simple, and the complexities of grief can’t be overcome with an avoidance strategy.
I understand that this is Daniel Levy’s first film, and I enjoyed many things about it. The film was deeper and more layered than I expected. It wasn’t just about grief, and it wasn’t about making light of it. It digs into the many different aspects of the process, often a broken one, that people go through as we process loss. I liked that there were no simple answers, no simple cliches to go through, and no simple ending.
The supporting characters could have been developed more though. I didn’t understand their stories except how they related to Marc. We never get the full background of Thomas’s story, and I’m not sure what changes in Sophie. If there are lessons to learn from Marc’s journey, there may have been more meat on the bone with the other two characters.
Of course the film felt a bit brooding – it’s about death and grief. There were a few times when I felt like it lost its pacing or things were drawn out where I didn’t get more detail. But overall, it accomplished making me feel like I was in Marc’s head with him at times. I could relate.
I liked the theme of not suppressing one’s emotions, even if we think we are protecting ourselves. It may be the case in the short term, but eventually they catch up with us or have other unforeseen effects. Marc may have done this before, but at least he starts to figure this out and maybe he will be his whole self once again.
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