The Good House stars Sigourney Weaver as an alcoholic realtor on Boston’s north shore. Her success selling real estate and her family relationships are all suffering because of her drinking, but she refuses to face it.
The Good House is a play on Sigourney Weaver’s name in the movie, Hildy Good. Her real estate business is called Good and she has a famous witch in the family from 7 generations ago named Sarah Good.
Hildy talks to us. Not as a voice over but directly through the 4th wall to the viewer. She gives us her perspective on her drinking. All around her we see the fear and worry in the eyes of the people who care about her, but she ignores it.
Hildy is fond of reminding people she’s a top seller and that her husband left her for a man. Her ex, who is still around (with a man), and her two grown daughters stage an intervention. They convince her to go to rehab. She does, but she comes out and heads straight for a case of wine stored in a shed in her back yard.
Hildy’s long time friend Frank (Kevin Kline) gets roped into her drama. He helps her out and spends a few nights in her bed before he realizes she’s a danger to herself and others. She befriends a new woman in town, Rebecca (Morena Baccarin) and shares an office building with the local psychiatrist Peter (Rob Delaney).
Sigourney Weaver was painfully good in this film. All the things alcoholics do – the lies, the blackouts, the nights spent passed out in strange places, the accumulation of catastrophes – she makes them all real and personal. The denials and rationalizations are emotionally honest.
The ending is hopeful, but getting there is hard. The Good House is based on a novel by Ann Leary. This 2021 film is currently streaming on Peacock.