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Category: The Good Man

THE GOOD MAN

Director:  Phil Harrison

Year of Release:  2013

‘The Good Man’ is a film with, excuse the pun, ‘good intentions’ but has a style which, I feel, distracts from the overall story, and leads to the whole thing being rather muddled.

The basic premise is a banker (Michael, played by Aidan) living in Ireland, unintentionally kills a stranger, one who sponsors a teenager (Sifiso) living in a township in South Africa.  The film moves between Ireland and South Africa, and it is this that can prove a little jarring, especially as the South Africa portions of the film have subtitles. This does fit the story, and I don’t think it could be told in any other way, but the two strands don’t gel as well as they might. 

In South Africa we follow Sifiso as he goes to school and interacts with his friends, in particular a young girl Katleho, both of whom dream of escaping to a better life.  Here, we are given an insight into what it is like living in these townships, where traditional rituals go hand in hand with severe poverty, even electricity is a luxury many people can’t afford.

Back in Ireland, following an accident in which a man dies, Aidan’s character Michael is wrecked with guilt, becoming distracted at work, and distancing himself from his family.  Whilst the character isn’t that much of a stretch for Aidan, and the storyline holds little in the way of surprises, he is committed throughout, and nobody can cry like he can.  You really feel for him, he is trying to make amends for what he has done, but it takes a good portion of the film for him to figure out how he can do that. 

This film was shot in only 14 days, and 6 of them were in South Africa, so I can see why Aidan was attracted to the role, as this character and story are both quite different from Lord Baelish in Game of Thrones, which he was filming at the same time.  Personally, I like it when Aidan plays ‘good guy’ roles it makes a change as he has played so many ‘bad men’ over the years.

The film takes a tragic turn towards the end, and whilst for the most part both sides of the story are fairly predictable, it does highlight how much damage a ‘good man’ can do when they don’t understand the consequences of their actions.  I guess this is the moral of the film which it is hammered home, perhaps a little too well, and the whole thing does have a tinge of ‘preachiness’ about it.

I wouldn’t say I would recommend this film, it’s not bad, just not particularly good.  It does have a short 75 minute running time though, and if you have no objection to subtitles, it is a thought provoking piece in which Aidan has a fair amount of screen time, I could think of worse ways to spend an hour or so.