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“My Dead Friend Zoe” Film Details
Runtime: 1 Hour and 38 Minutes
Release Date (AMC Screen Unseen): February 17, 2025
Release Date (National): February 28, 2025
Initially Available On/Via: Theatrical Release
Advisory Film Rating: Rated R
Genre(s): Comedy, Drama, War
Distributor(s): Briarcliff Entertainment
Director(s): Kyle Hausmann-Stokes
Writer(s): Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, A.J. Bermudez
Based On Work By: Cherish Chen, Kyle Hausmann-Stokes
Summary
As the title of the movie tells you, Zoe is dead. Yet, despite the death of the flesh, Merit speaks to Zoe daily. This has negatively affected her life, including causing a court case that coerces her to do mandated group therapy with Dr. Cole. Merit struggles with speaking about Zoe, if not talking about her feelings in general, and uses her grandfather Dale’s failing health as an excuse to avoid therapy. After all, Grandpa Dale is the reason she joined the army.
But while trying to hide from her problems and avoid addressing the reason Zoe is always in the room, opportunities to get her life back on track appear, and Merit has to figure out if she’ll let them go on by or eventually just let the outside world decide what life will hold for her—which could include, at worst, financial penalties and, at worst, jail.
Character Descriptions
Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green)
Merit is a veteran dealing with the grief of losing her best friend and trying to reacclimate to civilian life and is having a tough time.
- The actor is also known for their role in “Holiday Rush.”
Zoe (Natalie Morales)
Zoe is Merit’s best friend who died, and now she haunts the only person who, when she was living, she believed she could count on.
- The actor is also known for their role in “Stuber.”
Dale (Ed Harris)
Dale is Merit’s grandfather who retired from the army, after decades of service, and finds himself, in his twilight years, with early onset Alzheimer’s.
- The actor is also known for their role in “The Face of Love.”
Dr. Cole (Morgan Freeman)
Dr. Cole is a veteran who hosts a support group that Merit must attend.
- The actor is also known for their role in “A Good Person.”
Kris (Gloria Reuben)
Kris is Merit’s mom, Dale’s daughter, who is a formidable force
- The actor is also known for their role in “The Equalizer: Season 3/ Episode 3.”
Alex (Utkarsh Ambudkar)
Alex’s family owns a local retirement home and has grandparents who were in the military. He is Merit’s love interest in the movie.
- The actor is also known for their role in “Barbershop: The Next Cut.”
Review
Highlight(s)
- You’re Going To Cry [89/100]
While “My Dead Friend Zoe” reveals that the ghostly figure we see pop up is dead from the jump, it may lead you to think this film won’t end up a tear-jerker; you’d be wrong. Thanks to the performance of Sonequa Martin-Green, you’ll likely form a bond with Merit to the point of being overtly emotionally invested. Because of that, every failed opportunity to reacclimate to civilian life, watching her bond with her hero and grandpa, Dale, and secretly be part of him losing his home, it all creates the type of combo that builds something up in you.
This makes it so that when you finally learn what happened to Zoe, it breaks you in an unexpected way. Especially since, by that point, you may think Zoe was a bit annoying, and the friendship was purely based on proximity more than anything else. Yet, Martin-Green’s struggles as Merit push you to realize Zoe was more than that. So, her becoming the voice in her head, the misery that doesn’t love company but wants all of Merit’s attention, hits harder than initially expected.
- Dale’s Storyline and Development [83/100]
A lot of films and movies focus on telling you more than showing you, but that isn’t the case as to why Dale is not only Merit’s hero but also her inspiration. Seeing him not just fix things around the house but also seeing how Merit becomes like a little kid around him, particularly if she is being scolded, is cute in a way. You see this relationship that, despite different skin tones, you can see as real.
I’d even say as much as Dale contributes to the moments you may cry, sometimes it is for him over her. As he talks about returning from Vietnam, Merit’s grandmother, and going from a strong, proud soldier to an old man whose daughter is trying to take away his autonomy, it is difficult to not feel his pain a bit. Especially since the only one who could understand to some degree, Merit, shied away from him despite the moments he’d need her around the most.
On The Fence
- Zoe [74/100]
Let me be frank about Zoe. While she can be comical as she pops up and makes comments throughout the movie, I won’t pretend some may not find her annoying. Now, granted, part of Zoe’s issue is that Merit’s life has more stability than hers, and you can see a level of dependency there that almost reads as romantic. But this isn’t that kind of movie.
If anything, what you see is someone we don’t get to learn much about beyond Merit’s knowledge and perception of her, making it difficult to make your own connection to Zoe. So, while you may cry over what happened to Zoe ultimately, it is more so because of how it affects Merit than the end of Zoe’s life. Which, for a movie about the effect Zoe had, seems a bit odd.
- The Romance [79/100]
I like Merit and Alex. He seems like a nice guy. His family has a military background, so he understands certain things, and he makes an effort. However, there is a real case of bad timing here that keeps this from just being cute to butterfly-inducing. So, for a good part of the movie, it just feels like a setup since something always happens to burst the bubble, and Alex being involved at the retirement home that Kris wants to put her dad in spells trouble.
- Wishing We Got More of Kris [76/100]
Kris, Dale’s daughter, and Merit’s mom feels like someone we should have gotten more of. Based on how stern and precise she is, she is definitely a soldier’s daughter. However, her reaction to her daughter enlisting and her mom dying are absent, and all of the things that would have made her a bit more human.
Like Zoe, she feels entirely written based on who she is to Merit than like Dale, who gets to be wholly themself. This makes her out to be, not a villain per se, but feel like someone who is made to be so simple that it feels like she is struggling to escape the dichotomy of support or obstacle.
- Dr. Cole [75/100]
A part of me gets it. Dr. Cole has had struggles after he got out of the military, and Merit is a black woman, and you can see the desire to treat skin folk like kin folk. However, what rubs me the wrong way about him is that he pressures Merit to have a breakthrough before she is ready and uses her case to force her to open up in ways she clearly is uncomfortable with.
It would be one thing if they met one-on-one, and she just had to open up to him. But doing so in front of four strangers? Even if they are veterans, too? I feel like that is a lot to ask. Plus, considering how Kris is as a mother, even Dale to a point as a grandfather, it would have been nice if there was a man, or person in general, in Merit’s life who was nice to her and wasn’t trying to get something from her, be it a sale or a date.
Overall
Our Rating (81/100): Positive (Worth Seeing)
“My Dead Friend Zoe” may not develop certain people in Merit’s life who either have or could influence her as it should, but Martin-Green’s performance does more than enough to often forgive this. Add in an appreciation for what she did with the script of Hausmann-Stokes, Chen, and Bemudez wrote, and she ultimately delivered what this film was meant to be: a depiction of grief focused on soldiers whose losses aren’t always in a traditional battle.
Content Information
- Dialog: Cursing
- Violence: Self-Harm
- Sexual Content: Nothing Notable
- Miscellaneous: Drinking, Smoking
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