‘My Dead Friend Zoe’ Blu-ray (review)

Universal Studios

The slice-of-life drama meets magical realism in My Dead Friend Zoe, where we are introduced to Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green), a veteran trying to juggle the demands of her VA counselor, Dr. Cole (Morgan Freeman), reconnecting with her estranged grandfather, Dale (Ed Harris), and the loss of her best friend from the Army, the eponymous Zoe (Natalie Morales).

When presented with the premise of a character continuously interacting with a deceased loved one, understandably, most viewers will expect the film to fall into the category of either horror, comedy, or a mixture of the two, and it may therefore come as a surprise that My Dead Friend Zoe is none of the above, but instead a drama about grief, acceptance and accountability, and the growth we experience when we put in the work to genuinely embrace those qualities.

Based on filmmaker Kyle Hausmann-Stokes’ own experiences, the intentions behind My Dead Friend Zoe are sincere and meaningful, as it sets out to examine how trauma and mental health struggles impact veterans during both deployment and civilian life, with all involved approaching the subject with solemnity, resulting in the final product being less pretentious and jingoistic than it very easily could have been.

This is not to say that the film from the first-time director is a flawless fluke of a debut, as it is most definitely not without its faults, particularly when it comes to how the film mixes different genres.

While a film concerning serious themes need not be a heart-wrenching sob story from start to finish, which the film indeed makes an effort to avoid, its interjection of humor at times feel jarring and tacked on.

Unable to settle on any specific tone, and with a narrative structure that could have been pruned here and there to allow for a more streamlined narrative and pace, the film does, at times, struggle to establish the intended impact, making it a little longer in the tooth than necessary at certain points, veering close to becoming too muddled and meandering to be maintain being engaging.

However, what becomes the redeeming factor is undoubtedly Martin-Green delivering a powerhouse performance, the actor serving as a stalwart anchor for a story that could have easily faltered to saccharine platitudes or exploitative trauma porn more concerned with voyeuristically looking at human hardship as entertainment rather than putting a meaningful message across.

As society strives to normalize talking about trauma and improving access to mental health services, My Dead Friend Zoe takes a sincere step to add to this conversation, and while the film is worth watching for Martin-Green’s performance alone, it also takes an empathetic and delicate look at how people who experience severely stressful and traumatizing situations not only deal with their mental health as it is, but also points to how badly additional improvements are needed.

Extras include a featurette and 2 deleted scenes.

Verdict: 7 out of 10.