Businessman Wesley Deeds is jolted out of his scripted life when he meets Lindsey, a single mother who works on the cleaning crew in his office building.
Good Deeds honors goodness, which isn't at all a bad thing, and it's not without moments of genuine feeling. But by the film's end, after watching a seemingly infinite number of dour close-ups of sober self-evaluation, I felt bludgeoned.
– David DeWitt,
New York Times,
24 Feb 2012
rotten:
An otherwise unremarkable pic that takes what feels like a very long time to unwind a drearily predictable storyline.
– Joe Leydon,
Variety,
24 Feb 2012
rotten:
There aren't a lot of laughs in "Good Deeds," and it could have used more of them.
– Bill Goodykoontz,
Arizona Republic,
24 Feb 2012
rotten:
Whose life, Wesley asks in the movie's narration, is he living? Judging from all the sterile office and apartment space and his mile-long face, I'd say Bruce Willis's in "The Sixth Sense.''
– Wesley Morris,
Boston Globe,
25 Feb 2012
rotten:
A ridiculously redemptive finale negates almost all of the preceding dramatic tension and resurrects a cloying Richard Marx chestnut to boot.