Good Review
By David Kempler
Not Even Good Enough to Be Bad
Apparently I didn't see all 1,275 Holocaust-related films that were released in 2008. It seems that I missed "Good". It stars a pretty big name in the business, Viggo Mortensen, so the fact that I had never even heard of it was not something I took as a very encouraging sign. But I have been surprised many times by films that I thought would be great or terrible so I went with an open mind.
Vicente Amorim directs John Wrathall's adaptation of a play by C.P. Tayloro that focuses on John Halder (Viggo), a mild-mannered, borderline milquetoast academic in pre-World War II Germany. His marriage is in disarray, at least partially because his wife is a loon. His mother is ailing both physically and mentally. He is the definition of mediocrity. Along comes the Third Reich to pull him out of his mundane life and to lift him into a life of prominence. What propels him is a nondescript novel he had written years earlier. Someone at the Reich happened upon the book and, because the novel in some way justifies euthanasia, the people in power feel it would be a good addition to their "mountain of evidence" that euthanasia is a good thing, no matter the circumstance.
Halder's career ascends even while his personal life and the world begin to crumble. He replaces his wife (Anastassia Hille) with Anne (Jodie Whittaker), a sportier model that happens to be his student. But even though she is not a loon like the first Mrs. Halder, she is amoral and without any core. Halder's best friend, Maurice (Jason Isaacs) is a Jew. Naturally, things are not going quite as well for Maurice as for Halder under the budding regime. Maurice needs help getting out of the country but Halder lacks the balls to help him so Maurice is presumably doomed.
"Good" ostensibly is a lesson for us that inaction is as bad as the commission of evil. Isn't that special? The message isn't all that weak but its presentation here is abysmal. Everything about "Good" feels forced and unnatural. Aside from a payday it is hard to fathom how Mr. Mortensen ever ended up in this sophomoric mess. The end, if this is even possible, is more phony-heavy than the first 90 percent of "Good". For anyone who ever saw the television show "Night Court", it has that same patronizing type of ending. "Good" either should have been handled by a better team or should have never been made in the first place. It's not good. It might not even be good enough to be bad.
