Good Grief (2023)

Jack and I really liked Daniel Levy's movie (he directed, wrote, and starred) about an artist named Marc mourning his husband's death with Marc's two best friends. It sounds lugubrious (i.e. mournful–my mother liked that word) but there's plenty of comic relief, as to be expected from the Schitt's Creek creator, star, writer, producer, and showrunner. The best friends are played by Ruth Negga and Himesh Patel and the husband is Luke Evans. Celia Imrie makes an appearance as the estate lawyer and I spotted cameos by Kaitlyn Dever as the narcissistic young actress and Emma Corrin as the performance artist.

The sweet soundtrack by Rob Simonsen is available to stream on Apple Music and likely elsewhere and there are good songs, of course. I remember enjoying the production values––production designer is Alice Normington––and great location shots in London and Paris, including in the room with Monet's water lilies in the Musée de l'Orangerie. Marc's paintings are by Kris Knight, who, like Levy, is Canadian. You can see five of them them here, but it may be better to view them after watching the movie.

Levy was last blogged for acting in Happiest Season and it's his first time directing and writing a feature. Negga was most recently in these pages for Passing, Patel for Yesterday, Evans for Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, Imrie for Finding Your Feet, Dever for Ticket to Paradise, and Simonsen for The Whale.

Corrin has a slew of nominations and wins for playing young Princess Diana in season 4 of The Crown and Normington has designed over two dozen productions, including Nowhere Boy and Suffragette.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics' and audiences' handkerchiefs are dry, averaging 76 and 70%. We watched it on Netflix on December 20 after it had been on my watch list for a long time.