Producers: Dave Caplan, Kevin Mann and Daniela Taplin Lundberg   Director: Hallie Meyers-Shyer   Screenplay: Hallie Meyers-Shyer   Cast: Michael Keaton, Mila Kunis, Carmen Ejogo, Michael Urie, Kevin Pollak, Vivien Lyra Blair, Jacob Kopera, Nico Hiraga, Carlos Solórzano, Danny Deferrari, Laura Benanti, Carlos Ragas, Poorna Jagannathan and Andie MacDowell   Distributor: Ketchup Entertainment

Grade: B-

If you feel a sense of déjà vu watching “Goodrich,” it might be that you remember seeing Michael Keaton in “Mr. Mom,” the 1983 comedy written by John Hughes, which was based on a similar premise—the character played by Keaton has to assume primary responsibility for the care of his children while his wife is away. 

Of course, there are significant differences in the script by Hallie Meyers-Shyer.  Andy Goodrich (Keaton) isn’t a fired autoworker, like Jack Butler was in the earlier film.  He’s the owner of a boutique Los Angeles art gallery that he’s lavished so much time and attention on that he’s long neglected his family.  Grace (Mila Kunis), his daughter from his first marriage to art dealer Ann (Andie MacDowell), is estranged from him, and he’s oblivious to the fact that that his current wife Naomi (Laura Benanti), the mother of nine-year old twins Billie (Vivien Lyra Blair) and Mose (Jacob Kopera), has a drug problem. 

In fact, he’s dumbfounded when, alone in bed, he gets an early-morning phone call from Naomi telling him that she’s checked herself into a ninety-day program at a rehab center and may be leaving him as well.  He’s thrust into the job of taking care of the children, and turns to Grace, who’s expecting her first child, for emergency help, despite that fact that she’s irritated not only by his long-term neglect but his dismissive attitude toward her amiable husband Pete (Danny Deferrari).

All this is happening while his gallery is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, a fact that his long-time partner Sy (Kevin Pollak) and loyal young assistant Jonny (Nico Hiraga) keep reminding him of.  His only hope is to convince Lola Thompson (Carmen Ejogo), who’s just inherited her mother’s highly regarded paintings, to sign with him rather than a larger gallery.

Meanwhile Andy becomes friends with Terry (Michael Urie), the father of Alexander (Carlos Solórzano), an autistic classmate of his son and daughter—a gay man with financial and emotional problems of his own.

All of this makes for a busy scenario blending comedy with drama, and Keaton shows that he’s lost none of his skill in handling both.  His performance is, in its way, as energetic as his Beetlejuice, but filled with a charm that morphs from initial desperation to ultimate acceptance of his failings.  It’s not that it isn’t obvious where Andy’s story is headed; the arc of “Goodrich” is, despite a few swerves along the way, predictable, with a final sequence at a hospital pretty much predetermined as soon as Grace’s pregnancy is disclosed.  But Keaton pulls off the character’s transformation with the panache of the old pro he is.

Among those in support Kunis is clearly the most important.  Grace experiences a transformation no less intense than Andy’s, and the actress captures her transition from anger over seeing her father develop a paternal attitude toward the children of his second marriage that he never managed toward her to an appreciation of his efforts effectively.

The rest of the cast is all fine.  Though youngsters Blair and Kopera don’t entirely avoid the inclination to act precociously mature, Hiraga, Deferrari and Urie exude likability even if they all seem entirely squeaky clean.  Ejogo, meanwhile, is credibly pragmatic, though Lola’s introduction of Goodrich to the bohemian world she inhabits comes across as a mite sitcomish.

Technical credits are engagingly low-key.  Richard Bloom’s production design is suitably upscale, with Andy’s gallery especially well appointed, and Jamie Ramsay’s cinematography is pleasantly unfussy; Lisa Zeno Churgin’s editing is a mite too easygoing and Christopher Willis’ score can oversell the whimsy. 

But they all contribute to a movie about learning to value family over work that’s heavy on niceness and sidesteps weightier concerns—how will Andy make it financially now that his business is kaput?  Is a child custody battle in the wings between him and Naomi?—in its determination to end happily.  It’s a pretty ramshackle, old-fashioned contraption Meyers-Shyer has fashioned, but Keaton and his cohorts make it a mostly engaging, if formulaic, crowd-pleaser.