Goodrich

The sophomore feature from Hallie Meyers-Shyer, the 37-year-old daughter of Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer, is the first successful spin on Millennial Apology Porn Cinema I've yet seen. As the titular Andy Goodrich, Michael Keaton again plays Mr. Mom; only this time, it's at age sixty, and one of his kids is about to have a baby of her own. Workaholic Art Gallery owner Andy Goodrich's life gets upended when his young second wife checks herself into rehab, leaving him on his own with their young kids. Andy has been so absent as a husband and father he didn't even know his wife had a drug problem. As he leans on his grown daughter from his first marriage, Grace (Mila Kunis), their challenging father-daughter dynamics come to the fore.

The movie is sappy and full of cliches but it earns both its anger and its sentimentality. Meyers-Shyer writes a solid tell-off monologue for Kunis, in which Grace gets to unload on her dad and say all the things we all probably want to yell at our parents, but her character doesn't expect a blanket statement of apology in return because she's heard "I'm sorry" her whole life and is intelligent enough to know those words don't mean anything unless underscored by actual behavioral changes. Rather than going through some insufferably overproduced fantasy metaphor for building understanding and reconciliation between parent and adult child, Goodrich presents a straightforward story of generational and gender disconnect and reconciliation that feels honest and movie-level authentic because it's not merely selfish, one-sided, false wish-fulfillment.

If only Meyers-Shyer hadn't cast horrendously self-conscious and precocious child-actor-y kids to play the young Goodrichs. I know this story takes place in LA, I know Meyers-Shyer was kind of a child actor herself, and I know there really are kids like this, but Goodrich would have played a whole lot better if Keaton's young children came off as relatable as the other characters.