Aziz Ansari’s first feature film “Good Fortune” is a mildly amusing comedy which could push its comic promise further before arriving at its predictable ending. Thanks to the game efforts from Ansari and several other main cast members in the film, I was not bored at all during my viewing, but I also wished the story could go further with their considerable comic talent.

At first, we get to know about an angel named Gabriel (Keanu Reeves), who has worked as a hidden guardian preventing people from having car accidents due to texting during their driving. Although he has saved a lot of people for many years, Gabriel has been tired of his current position, and he desperately wants to get promoted for doing something more important and meaningful.

Just for proving himself to his supervisor, Gabriel tries to help a plain lad who has been struggling a lot due to his very desperate economic status. While he once aspired to become a documentary filmmaker, Arj, played by Ansari, has to do several different jobs for making ends meet day by day, and then there comes a nice opportunity via Jeff (Seth Rogen), your average wealthy tech bro who instantly hires Arj once Arj shows him that he is willing to do anything for any kind of stable income. However, Jeff soon fires Arj just because Arj crosses the line a bit, and then things get worse and worse for Arj after that.

Just like James Stewart’s hero in Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946), Arj becomes quite depressed as facing the bottom of his life, and that is when Gabriel enters the picture. He initially tries to show Arj how his life will be in the future, but Arj does not become hopeful or optimistic at all despite Gabriel’s efforts, and that eventually makes Gabriel do a rather drastic thing. He switches the positions between Arj and Jeff, and now Arj comes to enjoy everything once belonging to Jeff, while Jeff comes to serve Arj without remembering anything about his previous position in contrast to Arj.

Gabriel just tries to show Arj that wealth and privilege cannot buy happiness, but, what do you know, Arj finds himself enjoying more of all things Jeff’s money can buy. When the time for his decision comes later, he refuses to change his position with Jeff’s, and Gabriel only ends up complicating the situation further. In the end, his supervisor comes for handling this big problem, and Gabriel consequently finds himself being stuck in Jeff, who is not so pleased to say the least after belatedly realizing what happened to him due to Gabriel’s well-meaning but unwise actions.

What follows next is a sort of lightweight version of Wim Wenders’ “Wings of Desire” (1987). Besides losing his small wings, Gabriel becomes a human being as a part of his ongoing suspension, and he gets to know and experience more of human condition. While he often finds himself in a lot of despair and frustration as struggling to live just like Arj did, he also discovers a number of good things to cherish, such as tasting a hamburger for the first time.

As Ansari’s screenplay shifts its focus a bit more toward Gabriel’s narrative arc, Keanu Reeves often shines with his enjoyable deadpan comic performance. While he looks as phlegmatic as he did in “John Wick” (2014) and several following sequels, he is often effortlessly funny as his character clumsily bounces from one point to another along the story, and we actually come to care more about his character more than expected.

On the opposite, Seth Rogen, who has steadily amused us in one way or another for more than 20 years since I noticed him for the first time via his supporting role in Judd Apatow’s “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” (2005), functions as an effective counterpart to Reeves. Yes, Jeff is pretty disagreeable at first just like many of those tech bros in our increasingly troubled world, but he is amusing to watch thanks to Rogen’s good comic talent, and he also did a convincing job in his character’s gradual transformation along the story.

Compared to his two co-stars, Ansari somehow falters mainly due to his relatively less interesting character. We are supposed to care about Arj as much as Gabriel and Jeff, but the movie feels rather distant to his character arc, probably because of the showy comic materials given to Rogen and Reeves’ characters. There is a subplot involved with the possible romance between Arj and a supporting character played by Keke Palmer, but this does not seem to go anywhere except its expected arrival point.

In addition, I was particularly disappointed to see two excellent performers simply coming and going without much to do on the whole. As Gabriel’s no-nonsense supervisor, Sandra Oh is under-utilized during her several key scenes with Reeves, and Stephen McKinley Henderson, who plays one of the senior angels early in the story, manages to leave some impression during his very brief appearance.

Overall, “Good Fortune” works to some degree mainly thanks to the solid comic performances from its reliable main cast members, and Ansari makes a fairly competent directorial debut here, though I have regarded him with some reservation for several reasons including that his alleged sexual misconduct which drew a lot of attention in early 2018. I must confess that I still hesitate to say anything nice about him, but I can tell you at least that you will probably enjoy the movie more than I did, and that is all, folks.