Dan Levy, the son of Eugene and co-creator of TV comedy Schitt’s Creek, has made an agonisingly well-intentioned and indulgent feature debut with a bittersweet relationship dramedy for which he is writer, director, producer and star, set in and around various tasteful upmarket properties in London and Paris. The need for emotional honesty is a theme, and audiences are entitled to wonder whether the role played by wealth in soothing broken hearts deserves to be discussed more openly here than it is.
Levy plays Marc, an artist and illustrator whose talent is being smothered, just a little, by the career of his superstar writer husband, Oliver (Luke Evans), whose work has spawned a multibillion dollar movie franchise. Marc is happy in the relationship but grieving the recent loss of his mother. He has a Richard Curtisian gallery of adorable mates: art dealer and former boyfriend Thomas (Himesh Patel) is always complaining about his love life, and Sophie (Ruth Negga), who is impetuous and chaotic. Something terrible happens at a lavish Christmas party hosted by Marc and Oliver, and Marc comes into possession of information that causes him to re-evaluate his relationship and his life.
At one stage, he describes existing in a state of grief as like “swimming with my clothes on and I can’t take them off”. It’s a very good line but unfortunately it also describes the experience of watching this film. There is a strenuous earnestness here, which is made to coexist with entirely artificial romcom dialogue of a kind not spoken by real human beings. These are the kind of speech patterns which are acceptable as delivery systems for humour and jokes – but humour is sadly not forthcoming for much of the time. However, David Bradley, giving a touching performance as Oliver’s dad, is allowed to speak more simply and authentically. Good Grief is certainly sincere; Levy has a lovely singing voice in the karaoke scene, and there are lively star cameos from Emma Corrin and Kaitlyn Dever, as well as Celia Imrie as Marc’s lawyer, who gets an affecting little speech about her own secret heartache.
• Good Grief is released on 5 January on Netflix.
