Good Fortune review (2025)

November 22, 2025 Jeffrey Lyles Aziz Ansari, Good Fortune, Keanu Reeves, Keke Palmer, Sandra Oh, Seth Rogen, Stephen McKinley Henderson

Good Fortune is a timely comedy looking at a have-not getting a chance to enjoy a privileged life at the expense of tech bro with money to spare.

Aziz Ansari directed, wrote and starred in this especially relevant role reversal.

Gabriel (Keanu Reeves, Ballerina) is a guardian angel. In the hierarchy of angel responsibility, he’s starting to feel like giving distracted drivers a touch to stop texting and focusing on the road might not be that important. Especially when compared to Azrael (Stephen McKinley Henderson, Civil War), who’s responsible for saving lost souls considering of ending their lives.

Yearning to do more, Gabriel brings his concerns to Martha (Sandra Oh, Invincible) head of angel management. Martha doesn’t think he’s ready for that level of responsibility. Plus, Gabriel would have to find a lost soul to save. Gabriel thinks he’s found the perfect candidate in Arj (Ansari), a horrifically down on his luck would-be documentary filmmaker struggling to make ends meet.

Arj is doing gig jobs like standing in lines for food delivery, running errands and basic handyman tasks. Even with a part-time job at a home improvement store, Arj can’t afford a place to stay and is sleeping in his car in store parking lots. Provided he doesn’t get discovered by vigilant security guards.

Things seem to have turned when he gets a job request from Jeff (Seth Rogen), a tech billionaire who’s got stupid money to burn like on a car he’s never driven since he doesn’t know how to drive a stick shift. Interestingly, Ansari doesn’t write Jeff like a callous, braggy billionaire. He’s relatively generous and isn’t dismissive or talks down to Arj. Besides the obvious optics, Jeff isn’t throwing his money in Arj’s face.

When Arj is preparing for a date with Elena (Keke Palmer, The Pickup), a co-worker at the home improvement store, Jeff offers him a coat to use to make a good impression. Arj didn’t need to listen to Jeff’s restaurant recommendation though as he’s floored when he sees the bill. That’s when Arj messes up by using the company credit card Jeff gave him. This is a hiccup with the script — Jeff isn’t necessarily in the wrong for firing him afterwards.

Seeing a situation ripe for his help, Gabriel lets Arj see how great life would be if he had Jeff’s money and Jeff had to live his life. It doesn’t fully dawn on Gabriel that his “lesson” wasn’t going to have the desired effect, and Arj is actually fine living the life of a billionaire. Gabriel’s astonishment at Arj’s take is hilarious as he completely didn’t see any of that coming.

Reeves is really the driving force of Good Fortune. His astonished delivery is what sells the humor and helps the jokes properly land. Ansir probably needed to spend more time on Arj enjoying the good life after getting beaten down by life for so long. This is the portion of Good Fortune that feels somewhat cut short and it’s the section that more audience members would find relatable and funny.

The other side of this role reversal is the impact on Jeff’s life. For a time, he’s oblivious to his lot in life. When he remembers he’s supposed to be the wealthy one and not Arj, he has to face some uncomfortable truths with Gabriel riding shotgun — now fully human after being stripped of his wings.

Rogen is also very enjoyable in this role as Jeff learns life isn’t quite so glamorous when everything is a struggle. Ansir starts to lose some of the comedic momentum as he steers Good Fortune to more of a morality play. Arj finds connecting with Elena harder now that money isn’t an object while she is focused on improving conditions for her co-workers. Palmer is always entertaining, and she makes for an engaging romantic lead.

Ansir has some good ideas with the concept, but Arj obnoxiously using the wealth in a way that a billionaire likely wouldn’t like setting up sleep zones and portable showers for the unhoused could have paved the way for more laughs. Good Fortune is at its best as a comedy and less effective when Ansir tells a story Arj likely wouldn’t find plausible.

When the comedy is on point, Good Fortune is divine. It just needed a bit more emphasis on laughs instead of lessons to be heavenly.