The Good House

One of the largest genres Hollywood has to offer is that of dramas. The list of them would comprise volumes, so, suffice it to say, there have been many dramas produced that have been stunning--both artistically and story wise. When I saw the trailer for "The Good House" a short while ago, it didn't really capture my attention. I like actors Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline, however, even with their presence, was this going to be anything interesting at all? Well, the answer to that thought is...yes.

Wendover, Ma. This story follows Hildy Good (Sigourney Weaver), a wry New England realtor and descendent of the Salem witches, who loves her wine and her secrets. Her compartmentalized life begins to unravel as she rekindles a romance with her old high school flame, Frank Getchell (Kevin Kline), and becomes dangerously entwined in one person's reckless behavior. Igniting long-buried emotions and family secrets, Hildy is propelled toward a reckoning with the one person she's avoiding for decades: herself. You see, she's a working alcoholic, which is tougher to admit since one can be functioning. So, she, through Frank and her family, must come to grips with it so her life doesn't completely unravel to a point of no return. 

Others to round out the cast are Morena Baccarin as Rebecca McAllister, Rob Delaney as Peter Newbold, David Rasche as Scott Good, Hildy's ex-husband, Rebecca Henderson as Tess Good, Molly Brown as Emily Good, Kathryn Erbe as Wendy Heatherton, Kelly AuCoin as Brian McAllister, Georgia Lyman as Cassie Dwight, Jimmy LeBlanc as Patch Dwight, Beverly D'Angelo as Mamie Lang and Oliver Boyle as Ben McAllister. 

This was surprisingly well directed by Maya Forbes ("Infinitely Polar Bear" '14, "The Polka King" '17) and Wallace Wolodarsky ("Coldblooded" '95, "Sorority Boys" '02, "Seeing Other People" '04). I say surprisingly since neither of them encumber a huge body of work behind the camera. Their staging and pacing was spot on, as was the ability to work with their actors in order to extract those emotions especially needed given the subject matter. It was far better written than I thought considering the trailer. This was penned by Thomas Bezucha, Forbes and Wolodarsky, which is based on the novel by Ann Leary. Wolodarsky has the lion's share of the experience here, not that the other two writers were remiss in lack of experience. What made this film to flow as well as it did was the way it was handled in that they took a fairly common story, and used a narrative technique performed by Weaver throughout the film as each scene was about to begin. This is not the first time this has been done, however, the way this was treated, it would set the mood, along with giving it a certain lightness to an otherwise bleak premise. Because of its rather common premise, I see now why the trailer didn't wow me. Really, other than a couple of very small slow places in script, this screenplay was rock solid.

One must experience this story firsthand, because, as I stated prior, the trailer doesn't sell it so you might feel hesitant in even giving this film a shot. It has a lot to say, and if one can learn anything from this, it's that chronic problems will only continue if not confronted head on. In fact those issues will grow even worse. 

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                         Rated: R                                            103mins.