Good Fortune Movie Review: Divine Comedy

Aziz Ansari makes his belated directorial debut with Good Fortune, a breezy Los Angeles-set comedy with an all-star cast.

Keanu Reeves plays Gabriel, a ‘budget angel’ as symbolised by his diminutive wings, who is bored of his remit of stopping people from texting while driving and strives for something more ambitious. He sees Ansari’s Arj, a down-on-his-luck film editor in LA who does odd jobs and sleeps in his car, as a potential candidate to help prove to his boss (Sandra Oh) that he’s got what it takes. When Arj is fired as the personal assistant of Seth Rogen’s multi-millionaire tech bro Jeff, he finds himself more desperate than ever, which gives Gabriel his big idea.

Seeing how unhappy the poor mortal is with his lot, Gabriel swaps Arj’s life with Jeff’s for a week. In doing so, he hopes to show him the downside of wealth and that the grass isn’t always greener. The only problem is, Arj is enamoured with this new world of fancy watches, pool parties and haute cuisine, even finding his work as a high-flying venture capitalist surprisingly easy. Jeff, now playing the role of assistant, naturally wants his old life back. It’s a wickedly funny subversion of the It’s a Wonderful Life concept, though one that mercifully doesn’t stray into outright cynicism.

From the opening scene, the gags come thick and fast and that remains the case throughout. With Ansari also writing the screenplay, the film’s tone has that familiar balance of sincere wholesomeness and black humour seen in Master of None and his breakout role in Parks and Recreation. It’s unlikely to win over anyone who doesn’t dig his schtick; aside from Reeves, who is hilariously deadpan, every character speaks with the same cadence as Ansari (you know the one). It can get tiring, but that doesn’t stop his astute observations on wealth, relationships and the workplace from receiving big laughs.

Ansari is a consummate comic performer and Rogen puts in a reliable shift as the privileged rich kid humbled by his new life working minimum wage jobs, but neither compare to Reeves. His adorably naive angel has all the best lines, and even when he isn’t talking he steals the show; in one scene, after his meddling gets him demoted to the status of human, the mere image of him forlornly puffing a cigarette had the audience in my screening howling. 

But even a comedy can’t be sustained on jokes alone, and this one falls short when the dramatic tension ramps up and its lackluster politics are exposed. There’s a plotline involving the love interest Elena’s (Keke Palmer) attempts to form a union that suggests it could have something to say about the conditions of part-time and gig workers, but Ansari’s proposed solution to the problem rings hollow; like his character, he may have once been one of us, but his writing is now a little out of touch.

Good Fortune is at its best when it’s focusing purely on the laughs, and that’s in no small part due to the performers tasked with delivering them. What a shame it is that Reeves is always so busy being one of the finest action movie actors out there, because the man was born for comedy. Let’s hope we see him team up with Ansari and Rogen for another romp as charming as this in the future.

Good Fortune was screened at TIFF on September 6, 2025. The film will be released in US theatres, in UK & Irish cinemas, and globally in theaters on October 17, 2025.