Dreams guide and shape our lives. Jay Gatsby chased the greenlight fueled by his aspirations for a better life, and this was enough for him to be perceived as great. For how many of us possess the zeal to pursue our dreams without giving up and letting them fall to the wayside? Jay Kelly (George Clooney) is a similar type of man: he wanted to be a movie star, so he made that happen. But there are consequences to this type of myopic focus; choices made with no afterthought, relationships left to wither, time lost that cannot be relived. Noah Baumbach’s film wants us all to consider whether the endeavours we pour ourselves into ultimately bring us value, or if they are just hollow pursuits that leave us as empty husks.
Jay’s just wrapped a movie. He wants to spend his free time with daughter Daisy (Grace Edwards), but she wants to spend her summer with her friends before she starts college. His other daughter Jessica (Riley Keough) is amiable towards her father but isn’t keen to have him be a major part of her life. Jay has his trusty manager Ron (Adam Sandler), who’s been with him since the beginning. Jay has the career he has in part because of Ron’s hustle for him – the man even got him a cheesecake rider in his contracts for crying out loud.
While Jay admirably cares about his craft, he comes off as very narcissistic and self-involved. He demands Daisy’s time and presence whenever it’s convenient for him, trying to guilt her about her plans because she didn’t take him into consideration. He goes to dinner with an old friend, Timothy (Billy Crudup), and expects to reminisce about the good old days when he was such a bad friend to the man. Crudup’s scene is probably the most compelling part of the film. Crudup lays bare for us the devastation of deciding to abandon a dream, we see his talent and mourn the what-ifs with him, because for most of us that is our fate. We settle. So we feel the catharsis when Tim finally gets to confront the man who stole his opportunity and his life.
If there’s going to be any acting accolades given out for this film, it should go to Adam Sandler. Ron’s sacrificed so much of his life to the building of Jay Kelly the movie star, but gets no appreciation from the man for his efforts. For so many of us, our professional and personal lives overlap; colleagues and bosses can come to mean so much to us because we devote time and energy to these relationships, but are things mutual? Jay sees Ron as an employee and not much else, and it’s utterly painful to watch Ron pour himself into these clients only for them to look at him as a mere cog in the fame machine. Sandler delivers a heartbreaking performance that will make you reevaluate the time and energy you expend on your work. Only Sandler can use the endearment “puppy” and not come across as insufferable.
The strongest parts of the film is the staged flashbacks, where Jay walks through a scene in his past like it’s an ongoing play. The contrast between younger and older Jay feels especially potent, and Clooney does well in helping us understand how Jay feels about each memory, be it regret or a wistful yearning. There is some sense of emotion when we’re treated to a montage of Clooney’s own filmography, where we feel the weight of Jay’s contributions to film, but this feels like a heavy price to pay when the Jay that we’re privy to isn’t a nice person.
Tonally, the movie isn’t quite sure what it wants to be. It lacks focus as we drift from scene to scene, and the ambiguity at the end feels like a cop out more than a meaningful statement. It veers into saccharine territory having done very little work to have earned it. Unlike Marriage Story, which managed to offset its inauthentic edges with raw emotion, Jay Kelly can’t quite escape how self-indulgent it is. It’s an easy enough watch, with standout performances from Sandler and Crudup, but not much else to recommend it.
REVIEW SCORE: 3/5
