I don’t know what I was expecting when I saw the first trailer for “Good Fortune,” but the initial glance at the storyline and concept gave me the strangest feeling of déjà vu.
By the time I actually sat through the film last week, I knew where I’d seen such plots before – 1983’s “Trading Places” with a bit of 1988’s “Scrooged” woven in for good measure.
While the concepts are basically the same, Good Fortune is tailored towards younger audiences.
That being said, the overall moral of the story remains the same – treat everyone with kindness because you don’t know their struggles and that money isn’t everything.
Plus, most of the laughs hinged on Keanu Reeves’ comedic timing and tone rather than just the general feel of the movie.
Or, at least that’s how it worked for me!
Good Fortune is a 2025 American supernatural comedy film written and directed by Aziz Ansari in his feature directorial debut.
It is produced by Garam Films, Oh Brudder Productions, Keep Your Head, and Yang Pictures.
Seth Rogen, Ansari, Keke Palmer, Sandra Oh and Keanu Reeves star in the film.
While the flick clocks in at 97 minutes long, it’s rated R for language and some drug use.
Gabriel (Reeves) is a low-ranking guardian angel whose job is to save people from crashing while texting and driving, but desires to save lost souls.
One day, he saves Arj (Ansari), an aspiring documentarian who does odd jobs, works part time at a hardware supply store, food delivery driver, gig worker, and lives in his car.
Curious, he observes Arj for a few days.
Arj begins dating his coworker Elena (Palmer) who is attempting to unionize the store.
While doing food deliveries, Arj meets a wealthy tech investor named Jeff (Rogen) and convinces him to hire him as his assistant.
Jeff recommends a supposedly affordable restaurant for Arj to take Elena to, but when the restaurant ends up being very expensive, Arj uses Jeff’s company credit card to pay for the meal.
Jeff fires him as a result.
Arj discovers the app he previously used to earn money has banned him and turns to donating plasma.
He falls asleep afterward in a Denny’s and discovers his car has been towed due to unpaid parking tickets.
Sensing that Arj has hit rock-bottom, Gabriel shows himself to Arj and presents him with a vision of his future to inspire hope, but Arj’s future is bleak.
Gabriel tells him that having wealth and success like Jeff won’t fix his problems, and switches Arj and Jeff’s lives to prove his point.
Arj discovers that he is now living as a wealthy tech investor with all of Jeff’s assets, and an unknowing Jeff is now his assistant.
To Gabriel’s disappointment, Arj is ecstatic and realizes that being rich has solved all of his problems.
Gabriel’s actions are discovered by his supervisor Martha (Oh).
She tells him that Arj needs to agree to switch back lives with Jeff, and takes away Gabriel’s wings as punishment.
Unfortunately, Gabriel has no real point of reference for humanity’s needs and continues to struggle to make things right with Arj and Jeff until the very end of the film.
While I enjoyed the movie for the most part, I feel like Reeves was the highlight personality in the film and any segments that didn’t’ have him were sort of bland.
