My Dead Friend Zoe is a good movie that makes a number of slight but important errors on its way to being a great movie. I think I understood the choices from a ticket sales standpoint, but not from an honest, earnest, real talk standpoint. It’s unfortunate… but its a good movie regardless.

It stars Sonequa Martin-Green as a army vet trying to get by now that she’s back home. Forced into group therapy with Morgan Freeman, she can’t bring herself to explain the source of her PTSD. It has something to with her dead friend who is haunting her but we don’t know the details. Meanwhile, she tries to help her vet grandad Ed Harris at his cabin.

I think the movie does a disservice to itself and its message with the inclusion of the gimmicky dead friend. Don’t get me wrong, I love Natalie Morales as an actor and was happy to see her… but she (and the title of the movie) bring along a more quirky tone than the movie deserves.

And then we get the obfuscation of what exactly happed to Green and Morales overseas. The details are hidden from us until the very end and I think that’s a mistake. What actually goes down would have helped us (the audience) better identify with Green’s trauma. As well as make the movie’s themes more apparent instead of burying them in the last ten minutes of the movie.

Other than that though, I quite enjoyed this film. Ed Harris in particular pulls off a good crotchety old man performance. And Green and Morales have good chemistry together. I especially liked the potential love interest from Utkarsh Ambudkar who pulls off a charming and funny performance.

This is a very welcoming and kind film that, in my book, makes some unforced errors on its way to a good, important message. It’d have been better if they were more open to that message and ditched the goofy dead friend Zoe angle. But maybe that gets butts in seats, marketing-wise.

Score: 83