# The Good Life (2007 film)

The Good Life (2007) is a film written and directed by Stephen Berra, starring Mark Webber, Zooey Deschanel, Bill Paxton, Harry Dean Stanton, and Chris Klein

## Jason

* I'd like to leave here someday. But like the snowflakes trapped inside a snowglobe, I wasn't going anywhere.
* After you die, nothing you ever owned matters, and everything you ever did does. You can't sell what you did to your family at a garage sale.
* My dad used to tell me that the people I meet will never care more about who I am than they will about what I look like; and because I look the way I do, people may never care about me at all.
* For the first time in a long time, it was all right. For about five hours.
* I've lived in the same house for twenty five years. And every Christmas the only thing I've ever wanted was to be somewhere else. Until now.

## Frances

* I don't want to watch, or talk about, anyone else's life anymore. I just want to live ours.
* When you're famous people try to take everything from you, and my husband took it all.
* Grab your coat and get your hat Leave your worries on the doorstep Life can be so sweet On the sunny side of the street
** Singing "On the Sunny Side of the Street", by Dorothy Fields to calm down Gus.

## Gus

* We got a little plant. I water it every day. Just to keep it alive. Maybe I shouldn't think just because it's still breathing, that it wants to live.

## Robbie

* Every little thing would set her off. The drugs probably didn't help. Electroshock therapy probably didn't either. She would fall in love with men, telling them that they were soul-mates, only to have affairs with her co-stars and cheat on every man she ever told she loved. But there's something about her that's just — that's just magic.
** Speaking of Judy Garland, while Jason realizes she was the inspiration for some of the stories told by Frances.

## Charlie Chaplin

* I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone, if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness -- not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
** "Look Up, Hannah", the final speech in The Great Dictator, the last film Gus watches in his theatre. (Video and full transcript of Chaplin's speech at AmericanRhetoric)

## Dialogue

    Gus: Why doesn't Catherine pop the damn popcorn?
    Jason: Because Catherine died five years ago.
    Jason: I don't know who you think I am, but I don't think I'm him. I don't know you.
    Frances: Yes you do, you just don't know you know me.
    Frances: You're hard on yourself, because a lot of people depend on you, and you're afraid of letting them down. You've got a great deal of unused potential. Something bad has happened to you recently, besides that [points to bloodied nose] — Some of your aspirations are pretty unrealistic considering that you live in Nebraska... you care a great deal about a select group of people, and you love this theatre.
    Jason: You can tell that by looking at my palm?
    Frances: I can tell that by looking at your face.
    Frances [of Gus and his theatre]: How come he doesn't show new movies there?
    Jason: It's too expensive, and he feels of all things that people should forget, old movies aren't one of them.
    Frances: I wanted to say I'm sorry for lying to you. I do the same palm reading on everyone, it's a lie. And I can't get over how mean it was to lie to you, because you're probably the nicest person I ever met, and you're dying, and I took advant...
    Jason: Wait a minute, wait a minute — wait — I'm not dying.

## External links

* The Good Life - Trailer
* IMDb entry