After a fatal accident, Allison became hooked on the prescription drug OxyContin. She struggled to process her emotions and gradually became dependent on drugs to deal with the aftermath of the tragedy. Unexpectedly, the wisest advice came from the person who hated her the most after the accident. “A Good Person” is about the relationship that Allison and her former father-in-law, Daniel, developed over time. Whereas for Allison it was about getting her life back on track, for Daniel it was about showing God that he was a good person under any circumstances. Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman save the show with what is essentially an average watch at best. There were certain moments that struck the right chord, but for the most part it was pretty one-dimensional.
spoilers ahead
Summary of the plot of ‘A good person’: What is the movie about?
Allison and Nathan were head over heels in love and had recently announced their engagement. It was her mellifluous voice that immediately caught Nathan’s attention on his first date. She was not a professional singer and worked as a sales representative for a pharmaceutical company. His job required him to promote drugs, and although he sometimes felt a bit guilty, he dismissed it because he was only dealing with drugs related to skin diseases. Allison planned a day out with her sister-in-law, Molly, and her husband, Jesse. They were supposed to decide on a wedding dress and watch a play after that. Just as they were discussing the play they would see later, the car crashed into a backhoe. Jesse and Molly died in that tragic accident. Allison survived, but the physical and emotional pain from her was too much for her. She was the one behind the wheel and looked at her phone to see the map when it all happened. But living with the guilt of being somehow responsible for the deaths of two people was impossible for Allison, and she chose to shift the blame to the driver of the backhoe. While she convinced the people around her that she was innocent, she continued to live with the guilt. She became estranged from Nathan after the accident, despite the fact that he was ready to marry her. She struggled every day to live with herself and the pills became her only solution.
How did Allison meet Daniel?
Allison went completely crazy the day Diane, her mother, refused to give her any more pills. The doctors wanted her to stop taking the medications, but she was convinced that OxyContin was the only way to deal with the pain she was experiencing. During a fight that led to her mother throwing away the pills, Allison was injured. Frustrated with her mother’s decision, Allison left because her elbow was still bleeding. She tried to get the drug, but the pharmacy refused to give her any more pills. From her disgruntled appearance, the pharmacist concluded that she was another victim of OxyContin. Allison wasn’t interested in any solution to her problem; she was simply on the hunt for the drug. The next day, she cleaned up and met up with her former colleague, Becka, at a restaurant.
Although Becka hoped to catch up with Allison, she was there for her own reason. She decided to cut the conversation short and asked Becka to provide her with OxyContin. The request soon turned into a lawsuit and ultimately blackmail, but Becka refused to budge. Frustrated and disappointed, Allison headed to a pub hoping to score. There she met her high school drug addict classmates, and they were very surprised that the once popular girl in school asked for pills. Allison was stripped of her self-esteem when she admitted to being a drug addict in exchange for heroin. She returned home crying, realizing that she was completely lost. As the pills gradually wore off, she was drawn to an AA meeting held at a church. As she entered, she noticed Nathan’s father, Daniel.
Why was Daniel at the AA meeting? What was the reason behind Nathan’s distance from him?
After losing his daughter and her husband, Daniel took on the responsibility of raising his daughter, Ryan. The generation gap often led to conflicts between the two. Daniel realized that he was attracted to the bottle of alcohol that he kept hidden in his closet after staying clean for ten years. He started attending AA meetings to stay away from temptation, and one morning he noticed Allison walking into the room. He had blamed Allison for the accident, and surely he wasn’t too happy to see her. When he noticed that she was hesitant to attend the meeting after seeing him, he encouraged her to join. He swallowed her anger and eventually developed a friendship with Allison. Her personal experience helped guide her, and she didn’t mind having someone by her side who she could understand what she was going through. It was Daniel who made him realize that everyone around him was imperfect and that life has its own course. He would strip naked at meetings and discuss how he was responsible for his son’s inability to hear out of one ear.
As an alcoholic, most of his nights were blurry, and one morning when he woke up, he saw an ambulance and realized his son was injured. Over the years, he had come to accept that the damage done was beyond forgiveness. Her confession helped Allison deal with Ryan when he unexpectedly met her at Daniel’s house. Ryan immediately lashed out at Allison, but she kept her cool. Like Ryan, she also felt it was unfair that she survived, but that was the truth she had to live with. After a rocky start, Ryan took an interest in her. Allison encouraged her to join the soccer team, hoping to learn more about her parents. Ryan barely had any friends and found an older sister in Allison. The only problem was that she was too young to realize how her words could affect Allison, and Allison hadn’t fully recovered to face everything maturely. When Ryan mentioned Nathan and his girlfriend, Allison lost control of herself and took pills. She wanted to kill herself, but she couldn’t do it thinking about Nathan.
Explanation of the end of ‘A good person’: Did Allison recover? What’s wrong with Daniel?
Despite the fact that she was high, Allison agreed to accompany Ryan to the city. Ryan’s entire plan to get Nathan and Allison back together was ruined when she attended the party with his girlfriend. Allison was surprised to see Nathan there, and she couldn’t understand why Ryan wanted her to confront Nathan and his new life. When the band members asked Ryan and Allison to join a closed-door party, Allison immediately agreed. She was struggling to cope with the sudden encounter, and it led her to further drug abuse. While Allison was lost in her own world, Ryan was taken to another room, where Quinn attempted to force himself on her despite her repeated attempts to leave. By the time Allison realized Ryan was missing, Daniel had already arrived at the party after tracking down Ryan’s phone.
After ten years, Daniel consumed alcohol and was not in his proper state of mind. He brought out his gun and threatened to shoot Quinn, but Nathan stepped in and calmed him down. Although Ryan was rescued from the situation, Daniel couldn’t forgive Allison for being irresponsible. He didn’t mince words when he accused her of the car accident, and even though it was too painful, her words stuck with him. Allison was determined to change her life, now more than ever. With the money she got in exchange for the watch her father left her, she enrolled in a rehab center and slowly recovered. After sobering up, she met Nathan once more. She apologized to him for leaving him when she was suffering the most. She admitted to being self-centered and running away from her responsibilities. While they were in no condition to get back together, they believed that perhaps one day in the future they would have a reason to be a part of each other’s lives.
Daniel wrote a letter to Allison before her death. He wanted her to accept her fate, even if it might not be the life he had dreamed of. But over the years, he realized that perfection could only be achieved by designing a model train and not in real life. He wanted Allison to love her destiny as much as he did, and he believed that this was the reason why he was given a year with her son, building happy memories in the end. Although Nathan had taken responsibility for Ryan, Daniel knew that he needed help and hoped that Allison would support him. “A Good Person” ends with Ryan, Nathan, and Allison together on the porch of Daniel’s house. Although Daniel had made mistakes in his life, he had made a positive impact on the lives of those around him, especially Ryan, Nathan, and Allison. He accepted all the challenges and adversities to prove to God that nothing would stop him from being a good person, and in the end, even though he faltered several times, he will be remembered for being a good man.
