WHAT’S REAL AND WHAT’S NOT? –

Sept. 16, 2021 – I am not of fan of movies that resort to breaking the fourth wall, as it were, and letting their key characters talk incessantly to the audience. It is a device that generally feels lazy, a writer’s crutch to explain away story points instead of letting us discover for ourselves. The recent annoying pandemic comedy Together, with James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan as a bickering couple who sell their sides of ongoing marital arguments directly to the camera, is an example of why overuse of this technique can be so tired. Now along comes The Good House, which just premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, and where Sigourney Weaver as a functioning alcoholic real estate agent in North Boston offers her view on the town and its people with full sarcasm intact. It is based on the 2013 book by Ann Leary, and it seems this very literary conceit was too good to pass up for writer-directors Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky, along with their screenplay collaborator Thomas Bezucha who employ it religiously here.

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