Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Wendy Ide

A Good Person review – Florence Pugh lifts unsubtle US addiction drama

Florence Pugh
‘Sheer charisma’: Florence Pugh as Allison in A Good Person. Photograph: Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures

Having redeemed the rather silly Don’t Worry Darling through sheer charisma, Florence Pugh is once again called upon to bring her magic to otherwise indifferent material. In Zach Braff’s strident addiction melodrama A Good Person, she plays Allison, a young woman whose life shatters following her involvement in a fatal car accident. Allison has everything going for her: she’s beautiful, musically gifted and adored, in an icky, full-throttle way, by her fiance, Nathan (Chinaza Uche). The only fly in the ointment is Nathan’s conspicuously absent estranged father, Daniel (Morgan Freeman).

Fast-forward a year and Allison is locked in a downward spiral. Her relationship is over, she’s hacking her hair with nail scissors, and she’s addicted to OxyContin. Realising that she needs help, she attends a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, where the first fellow addict she meets is none other than Daniel. The prickly connection between them is persuasive, less so the contrived plotting and manufactured emotional crescendo of the third act.

  • In cinemas now/on Sky Cinema from 28 April

Watch a trailer for A Good Person.
Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.