My Dead Friend Zoe Review: Military PTSD Dramedy Elevated by Sonequa Martin-Green
HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – My Dead Friend Zoe is a dramedy with a little more drama than comedy that centers on the issues of military servicemembers' struggles with PTSD, and it would risk becoming a drama overwhelmed by its advocacy without the stand-out performance by Sonequa Martin-Green.
Co-written and directed by Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, who is a US Army combat veteran, My Dead Friend Zoe is inspired by his autobiography, and the film has partnered with national nonprofits to raise awareness about veterans' mental health. The story centers on Martin-Green's character, Merit, a servicemember who returns from the war in Afghanistan with PTSD. Literally haunting her is Natalie Morales's character, Zoe, a fellow servicemember who has died. In addition to reckoning with the circumstances of Zoe's death, Merit must also care for her aging grandfather (Ed Harris) who has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's Disease.
Sonequa Martin-Green carries My Dead Friend Zoe. As fans of Star Trek: Discovery know, she has an easy smile that also reveals her character's inner life, which is often filled with contradictions and different levels of emotional depth. Martin-Green delivers a performance honed with some deep psychology and background work that's not on the page, which had to have been developed in her preparation. One scene with her grandfather sees her adopt a military posture out of habit even though she's no longer part of the service, and the small moments of reaction shots reveal a full fleshed-out character. It's masterful work that saves the movie from melodrama.
That melodrama risks pushing My Dead Friend Zoe into an 'issue movie,' a film that advocates for an issue rather than unfolding a story organically. This is particularly the case during the third act reveal. The plot's structure hides the circumstances around Zoe's death until the third act, and there are long sections when it feels like the film is being too evasive. What's also true is that the film spins its wheels during the second act because it's biding its time until it can reveal to the audience something all the characters already know. Structurally speaking, this keeps the audience at a distance.
The film's direct advocacy occurs most prominently in post-credits scenes and in statistics right before the credits. It is only Martin-Green that keeps the issue from overwhelming the drama, as she anchors the film to the character's journey and lets the story speak for itself. Morales gives a strong supporting performance, but sadly, she's not given much to do aside from deliver some snarky lines and be a sounding board for Martin-Green's character in the movie's tearful conclusion.
PTSD and more broadly speaking, mental health advocacy is an important issue, and My Dead Friend Zoe makes for some successful advocacy work. However, it is Sonequa Martin-Green who makes it a good movie and a compelling character drama.
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