Good is a 2008 drama film based on the stage play of the same name by C. P. Taylor. It stars Viggo Mortensen, Jason Isaacs, and Jodie Whittaker, and was directed by Vicente Amorim. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 8 September 2008.
Good | |
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Directed by | Vicente Amorim |
Written by | C.P. Taylor John Wrathall |
Produced by | Miriam Segal |
Starring | Viggo Mortensen Jason Isaacs Jodie Whittaker |
Cinematography | Andrew Dunn |
Edited by | John Wilson |
Music by | Simon Lacey |
Production company | BBC Films |
Distributed by | Lionsgate (United Kingdom) |
Release dates |
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Running time | 96 minutes |
Countries | United Kingdom Germany Hungary |
Language | English |
Budget | $16 million[1] |
Box office | $1.5 million |
Producer Miriam Segal had wanted to turn C. P. Taylor's play into a film ever since she saw it in 1981. Good premiered in London in September 1981, with Alan Howard as John Halder, and transferred to Broadway in 1982. "I was simply overwhelmed by the play, and knew immediately I would do whatever was necessary to produce the film adaptation", Segal has stated.
In 2003, 22 years after the play's premiere, she finally secured the rights. Her former classmate, Jason Isaacs, signed on to be one of the film’s executive producers, and Viggo Mortensen, who had been very impressed by the play when visiting London as a young actor in 1981, agreed to play the lead. The film was shot entirely on location in Budapest in 2007.
The film was poorly received by critics, and its release was limited.[2] On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 33% rating based on 72 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "Though ambitious, Good stumbles in the transition from stage to screen, and Mortensen's performance isn't enough to cover its flaws".[3] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 40 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[4] Historian Frank McDonough praised the film, recommending it on the historical podcast 'We Have Ways of Making You Talk'.[5]