A consistent dramedy about a solider who lost her wisecracking friend.
So we start off with two army friends serving in Afghanistan who sing to Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” have some fun being themselves, and later, one of them ends up in a PTSD support group and the other ends up dead. That’s the set-up for “My Dead Friend Zoe,” which is based on a true story.
I was this movie a few weeks ago, and I also recommended it to my friends at AMC Theaters, as it was a surprise screening in its recent “Screen Unseen” showings. I said it was a really good film. And I still think it’s a good movie, because of the performances and the messages within. In fact, it’s a lot more complex than I expected.
The dead friend is Zoe (Natalie Morales) and the living soldier is Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green), who doesn’t share her emotions at the meetings hosted by Dr. Cole (a shaved Morgan Freeman). The old man tries to get her to talk or things won’t be easy for her. So, I guess we’ll have to wait for the end for her to finally talk.
Being a ghost, Zoe is able to make wisecracks without anyone knowing they’re being insulted. She can even deliver about Merit’s great grandfather dying on D-Day, and says: “I can joke about the dead. These are my people.” Yes, the wisecracks are a bit much, but there’s also a sense of levity within the drama that eases the tension a bit.
Merit’s veteran grandfather (Ed Harris) has developed Alzheimer’s and needs to be placed in a home. Because of his condition, his relationship with his granddaughter is bait and switch. For example, he’s been bitter regarding how she didn’t get the chance to say goodbye to her dead grandmother.
And she’s not supposed to tell him, unless, of course, she sparks a friendship with a nurse named Alex (Utkarsh Ambudkar), who visits his dead folks in the same cemetery. It seems like a platonic relationship, and if that is the case, then there’s likability in these two characters.
Last month, virtually from the Sundance Film Festival, I watched and disliked “Atropia,” which was about an actress trying to land a major role, starting with her participation in an Iraq simulation which the US Army trains in before they go into battle. Even as a satire, I had no idea who the targets of that film are supposed to be. But “My Dead Friend Zoe” knows who to aim at. People who have been in the army, people who lost their friends, people who need to see and acknowledge people going through hardships, and people who need a little sense of humor through pathos.
Harris and Freeman were both in “Gone Baby Gone,” but don’t expect a reunion scene between them. Expect Martin-Green delivering her complexity as her character can’t talk to anyone about her tragedy. Freeman does some good side work trying to talk some sense into her, while Harris displays the right attitude within his character’s condition and how his relationship with his granddaughter takes a toll. And Morales displays an exuberant amount of energy, as a dead comic relief character.
Even though I felt a certain rising action scene made a dumb choice in words, there’s still a strong display of emotions and words that brings out the main heroine’s best and worst qualities. It’s hard to understand her pathos, but it’s easy to acknowledge that not every person is ready to talk about their problems. “My Dead Friend Zoe” sympathizes that, and so do we.
It was directed by Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, who based this film on his own short subject “Merit x Zoe,” and did serve in the US Army during the Iraq War, as well. So, he must understand the two soldiers, both living and dead. I would suggest Zoe makes an appointment with Darby the ghost psychiatrist in “Darby and the Dead,” but I think this one more of a figment of Merit’s depression.