Dan Levy

Ruth Negga

Himesh Patel

Luke Evans

Celia Imrie

Arnaud Valois

David Bradley

Mehdi Baki

Emma Corrin

Jamael Westman

Kaitlyn Dever

Yoli Fuller

Noé Besin

Cyrielle Debreuil

Nigel Lilley

Gabriel Marc

Zoé Bruneau

Stacey Snider

Caroline Levy

Rob Simonsen

Ole Bratt Birkeland

Jonathan Corn

Jessica Ronane

Alice Normington

Thalia Ecclestone

Etienne Olchewsky

Vicki Stevenson

Sarah Kane

Julian Day

Megan Zehmer

Kate Fenske

Debra Hayward

Agathe Angeli

Emilee Bak

Lucy Cain

Jérôme Caron

Charlotte Clark

Lizzie Mair Davies

Michelle Garande

Marie Gombeaud-Antoine

Claire Guichard

Daphné Hesnard

Nabeel Hussain

Sarah Machal

Ophélie Mirambeau

Niall Monteith-Mann

Margaux Tricot

Hue Lan Van Duc

Mathis Dujardin

François Guerin

Zoe Liang

Charlyne Liquito

Anne-Caroline Remy

Ariadne Bicknell

Guillaume Fournier

Rebecca Sutton

Joni Amiranashvili

Christopher S. Aud

Phil Barrie

Beso Kacharava

Luka Kasrelishvili

Alexander Sanikidze

Martin Trevis

Levan Tserediani

Beqa Turashvili

Alex Bastin

Bailey Wright

Paddy Eason

Bhumika Mayer

Selah Chung

Marie-Sylvie Caillierez

Patty Connolly

Antoine Struyf

Pascal Doyen

Adrien Bertolle

Comedy

Drama

Good Grief

Not A Real Production Company

SISTER

United States of America

Brent Marchant

Wrapping one’s hands firmly around a heady subject can be quite an undertaking, and rising up to that challenge may take some serious doing. However, without a solid foundation to support such a venture, it’s easy to fall prey to the task exceeding one’s grasp, which, unfortunately, is the case with the debut feature from writer-actor-director Daniel Levy. As the title of this offering suggests, this ambitious production seeks to tackle the subject of overcoming unrelenting sorrow, specifically that of a middle-aged gay Londoner (Levy) who loses his husband (Luke Evans) in a tragic accident, leaving him grief-stricken for an extended time. He has the boundless backing of his best friends (Ruth Negga, Himesh Patel) to help him work through his sadness, but that condition only deepens when unexpected revelations emerge over the course of the next year. So, with no appreciable relief in sight, the trio decides to radically change direction, embarking on a long weekend trip to Paris to heal and to get back into the swing of life. However, it’s a journey that ends up being filled with the emergence of secrets and hard truths for all involved, faintly offset by the prospect of difficult but potential fresh starts. To its credit, this is a film that clearly has its heart in the right place, but it often feels like it’s struggling to say what it earnestly wants to express. The emotions are sincere, and the feelings are palpable, but their execution frequently misses the mark. Their expression often feels incomplete, conveyed through dialogue that plays more like stilted, scripted prose than authentic, natural conversation. That’s regrettable, given the strength of the performances, which genuinely attempt to communicate these emotions, both of the principals and a fine ensemble of supporting players, including Celia Imrie, David Bradley and Arnaud Valois. “Good Grief” feels like one of those projects that should have gone through another round of script revisions before being committed to film, particularly in light of the depth of the subject matter involved here. Grief isn’t easy, and neither is telling stories about it that come across as heartfelt and real. Regrettably, this isn’t one of them.