The Reel Review
A successful, self-absorbed actor in the twilight of his career looks back on his life, wondering if his fame was worth the heartache that it caused his family and friends. George Clooney and Adam Sandler star in this dramedy from Oscar-winning director Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story).
For a story so focused about finding one’s authentic self, the very meta Jay Kelly sure is heavily-manufactured. (Narcisstic Hollywood does love praising itself after all.) Featuring a Robert Altman-esque cast of characters that includes Billy Crudup, Jim Broadbent, Baumbach’s real-life partner Greta Gerwig, Emily Mortimer (who also co-wrote the screenplay), Stacy Keath, Patrick Wilson, Isla Fisher and Laura Dern, it is an amazing Riley Keough (The Lodge, It Comes at Night) as Kelly’s estranged, oldest daughter, and Sandler, as his devoted agent, who best capture the film’s sadness, each of them painfully aware of their lack of importance to Kelly.
The promising, Scrooge-like start of the film with ghosts of Kelly’s past changes gears about halfway in, as Kelly stalks his younger daughter on a train throughout Italy with plot elements that are too corny and contrived to be believable. But by its finale, the film does again rediscover its heart with an ironic observation about the consequences of Kelly’s life choices – that someone who brought so many strangers so much joy ended up causing those who were closest to him so much heartbreak.
REEL FACTS
• Originally Jay Kelly was to be a Brad Pitt/Adam Sandler collaboration, until Clooney replaced Pitt just prior to filming.
• The character played by Jim Broadbent is based on Noah Baumbach’s real life mentor, the late Oscar-nominated director Peter Bogdonovich (The Last Picture Show), who like the character in the film, lost his Bel Air home, went broke and ended up living the rest of his life in a one-bedroom apartment in Toluca Lake until his death in January 2022 at the age of 82.
• In the film, Jay Kelly’s Italian guide Alba, is played by famous Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher.
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