The Good House

Directed by Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky, The Good House follows alcoholic realtor Hildy Good (Sigourney Weaver) as she attempts to kickstart her fledgling career, hide her alcohol intake from family and friends, and rekindle a romance with a former love (Kevin Kline’s Frank). Filmmakers Forbes and Wolodarsky, working from a script written with Thomas Bezucha, deliver a perpetually uneven yet mostly watchable endeavor that receives plenty of mileage out of Weaver’s engaging (and often electrifying) performance, and there’s little doubt, certainly, that the actress’ captivating efforts here go a long way towards smoothing over the frequent bumps in the hit-and-miss narrative – with Weaver’s sterling turn matched (and heightened) by an above-average supporting cast that includes Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, and David Rasche. (Kline is as superb and appealing as ever here, to be sure.) The movie’s wildly erratic tone, however, paves the way for a midsection that’s rarely as consistently compelling as Forbes and Wolodarsky have obviously intended, which ultimately does diminish the effectiveness of the revelation-heavy and almost incongruously dramatic final stretch. (Weaver is, unsurprisingly, the best thing about the picture’s oddball third act.) The end result is a picture that feels like a high-end version of a made-for-the-Hallmark-Channel movie-of-the-week, and The Good House is, on that basis, fairly difficult to resist for much of its relatively-brisk running time.

**1/2 out of ****