Michael Keaton and Mila Kunis play father and daughter in ‘Goodrich’

AP Film Writer

Michael Keaton and Mila Kunis went from strangers to father and daughter in short order for the new film “Goodrich.”

Before cameras started rolling, they were essentially only able to meet once. It was a dinner with their writer-director Hallie Meyers-Shyer, who just had a feeling they’d be great together.

And before they knew it they were off to the races, embodying two people with a lifetime of hurt behind them, wondering if a real relationship is even possible at this point: He’s attempting to reconcile his absence in her youth and find a place in her life now, while parenting young twins from his second marriage; She’s preparing to have a child of her own and wondering if she can trust her dad to be there this time.

But neither were particularly worried. The script, they said, was just that good.

“Hallie’s writing was so honest and genuine and never felt forced,” Kunis said. “It never felt fake and never felt anything other than the story of these people. Everything made sense. The dynamic was real. The relationships felt real.”

Meyers-Shyer is the daughter of filmmakers Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer, who not only got a film education at home, but also frequented her mother’s sets and even appeared in several films as an extra. She made her directorial debut in 2017 with the Reese Witherspoon romantic comedy “Home Again” and started writing “Goodrich” soon after. She’d been thinking about a lot of things, about parenting in different decades and what that’s like for an older father with young and adult kids, and about a complicated father-daughter relationship.

“In my personal life, my father remarried and had a second set of kids. And that was complicated for me,” Meyers-Shyer said. “I felt like if that was something I was struggling with, it might be something other people struggle with.”

But perhaps the biggest inspiration was Keaton himself, an actor she’d always dreamt of working with. So she got to work writing the character, a Los Angeles art gallery owner who is at a crossroads, with only him in mind. He was flattered, agreeing to star and executive produce the speedy 25-day shoot in LA. That meant both bringing production work back to the city Hollywood calls home and getting to wake up in their own beds.

“It’s nice to bring some business back to Los Angeles and I’m really proud of the fact that we got to shoot an LA movie in LA,” Meyers-Shyer said. “LA is hard to fake. It’s a very special, unique place.”

“Goodrich” is opening in theaters this weekend, from the indie production and distribution company Ketchup Entertainment, in a marketplace where it can be hard for a movie that isn’t based on established intellectual property to make a splash — and even those aren’t guarantees. But the mere fact that “Goodrich” is getting a theatrical release is notable, as opposed to going straight to streaming like many star-driven originals these days.

“It’s sad that we’re even talking about the fact that it’s coming out in theaters,” Kunis said. “’A movie in theaters, isn’t that a miracle?’ What a time to be living in that that’s like a ‘congratulations.’”

Keaton is still a romantic about the theatrical experience too but doesn’t get too hung up on where a movie might end up, as long as it gets made. Meyers-Shyer too saw “Home Again,” which was a modest success in theaters, earning over $37 million against a $12 million budget get a nice afterlife on streaming.

“It’s really difficult for movies like ‘Goodrich’ to get made and get to the finish line now. I’m so grateful that we have and it’s being released in theaters,” she said. “I wrote this movie in 2018 and it’s coming out in 2024. It was a really long process.”

This time, she also did it without her mother producing.

“We were never going to be a filmmaking duo,” Meyers-Shyer said. “I had always asked that she produce my first film (“Home Again”) and that was only going to be that one. And that was the right film for us to make together. We had such an incredible experience, and I couldn’t possibly have learned more from her.”

Plus, her mom was just a phone call away when needed.

“I would call her all the time and ask her a million questions,” she said. “She’s a great asset and so smart about filmmaking.”

Kunis and Keaton both agree that Meyers-Shyer is standing on her own and distinguishing herself as separate from her parents. They loved her classic taste and touchstones, from Mike Nichols to Jim Brooks. Keaton said a film like “Kramer vs. Kramer,” a big influence on “Goodrich,” is a “recent reference” for her. Ernst Lubitsch is more her style.

“She’s not her mom,” Kunis said. “I think that she’s carved her own way through this industry. She’s really talented and has her own voice. And the same way that people watching a Nancy Meyers movie can put it on mute and they’ll know visually that looks like a Nancy Meyers movie, I equate the same thing with Hallie. She has a different aesthetic but an aesthetic nonetheless.”