3.0 out of 5.0 stars
“My Dead Friend Zoe” follows the tear-jerking story of Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green) as she works through the grief of losing her friend and fellow servicemember, Zoe (Natalie Morales). After a call from her mother, Merit learns her grandfather (Ed Harris) has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. To the chagrin of her group counselor (Morgan Freeman), Merit ghosts her therapy group to move out of the city and keep an eye on him as she and her mother transition him into assisted living.
Her grandfather lives in a wood cabin on a lake, surrounded by the family’s Christmas tree farm. Despite both being army vets — or maybe because of it — Merit and her grandfather butt heads often, neither really sure how to reach out to the other. Their attempts to connect with each other are often met with long, painful silences that are felt by the audience. Their emotional awkwardness is only exacerbated by Merit’s PTSD and her grandfather’s Alzheimer’s.
What is most striking about this film is its meticulous attention to detail. Merit still follows habits from her military days, with morning runs and instinctually standing at attention when speaking to authority figures. These subtle details greatly increase the connection the audience feels with Merit’s character; she is still visibly carrying her time in the military with her.
However, the film falls short in defining itself with a solid theme. On her runs, Merit routinely drops off breakfast to an unhoused man before circling back home, which seems like it is a nod to how many veterans end up unhoused, but that is not adequately explored in the film. Instead, it becomes one of many things the film briefly mentions but never really addresses.
There is a wide racial portrayal of service members who appear throughout the film, yet, the only time a character’s race is mentioned is in an effort to get cheap laughs from racial stereotypes. An East Asian veteran appears in the film only as long as it takes for him to make a joke about how both Asian Americans and military members all look the same. The Indian love interest makes several jokes about his family not owning a hotel chain. Despite the film hinging on the struggles Merit has faced after service, the issues she faces and their pervasiveness among veterans take a backseat for the majority of the movie. Lack of support has landed her in court-ordered group therapy to avoid potential jail time. This plotline is repeated in the background of the story, but isn’t engaged with until the end of the film. The story is built on the hidden struggles of veterans, but it does nothing to bring those issues to light.
Ultimately, the film’s biggest fumble is not properly addressing the race of the cast. The film seems to take a colorblind approach to race when it had the chance to break new ground with its approach to the portrayal of veterans and PTSD. Merit’s white grandfather would’ve had a very different experience in the military than Merit, a Black woman, did.
What is most disappointing about this movie is its failure to realize its potential. It was so close to touching on racial and class themes but routinely backed out at the last minute. Zoe and Merit get close to having a serious conversation about Merit being a Black woman in America, but it is quickly shut down by Zoe calling to attention Merit’s class status thus minimizing Merit’s experience. This could be a perfect segue into a class discussion about what demographic the U.S. recruits its military from: largely low-income students. However, their argument doesn’t go on to explore either race or class and instead pivots to focus on Zoe’s individual struggles with self-worth.
The portrayal of PTSD in the film is moving, but it fails to take into consideration Merit’s race and how that would impact her readjustment to life outside of the service. This is a disservice to the stories of Black female veterans — a group historically treated poorly both during and after their service.
The film is well-directed, well-cast and touching. It spoke to the experience of veterans who deal with the effects of PTSD. The film could’ve been greatly enhanced had it taken even just one of the many social commentaries it touched on and really explored it. Although the film did not follow through on any one issue, the story manages to at least bring into discussion — on a surface level — topics of race, class and generational divide among veterans.
