★★★ (3 out of 4)
The early buzz on “Jay Kelly” from film festivals where it premiered to less than stellar reviews, is that it’s more schmaltz than biting satire. Apparently, expectations were high that George Clooney would be playing a backstabbing version of himself as Jay Kelly, a charmbot movie star with a cruel streak to which even his nearest and dearest are not immune.
I’d pay to see that movie. And, OK, traces of it still exist in this one. But that’s not what Clooney has cooked up with gifted director Noah Baumbach (“Marriage Story,” “The Squid and the Whale”), who wrote the cunning script with actress Emily Mortimer. They went for something decidedly less one-note: The story of an actor who so preferred his public image—and why not since dozens work daily on its care and feeding—that he gave up even trying to develop a real self that couldn’t compete. Sure it’s funny. But sometimes even the laughs can’t hide the hurt.
The name “Jay” evokes the soulless Jay Gatsby from “The Great Gatsby,” created and scorned by author F. Scott Fitzgerald for mistaking “an unbroken series of successful gestures” for an actual personality. There is no there there for Fitzgerald’s Jay or for Baumbach’s.
...[W]hen Baumbach finds his rhythm with Clooney and Sandler working in perfect harmony, ‘Jay Kelly’ has the power to get under your skin and stay there.
Jay can be quite the little shit, casually betraying a mentor (Jim Broadbent, lovely) and an actor buddy Timothy (Billy Crudup) from the early days who accuses Jay of stealing his career (He’s now a child therapist.). Oscar take note: the great Crudup turns his single scene of verbal reprisal against Jay into a tour de force of resentment that ends in a hilarious fist fight but no closure.
Jay is better at remembering his movies (clips from Clooney’s own films are deftly used) than his two neglected daughters, Jess (Riley Keough) and the younger, college-bound Daisy (Grace Edwards). It’s Daisy (another name from “Gatsby”) who Jay decides to follow on a train to Italy to make amends. That the trip also coincides with a tribute to Jay in Tuscany is, well, typical. Baumbach shows Jay warming to these strangers on a train far more than to his kids. He even chases a purse snatcher through a field to echo his action roles and win applause.
The defining concept of the film, the Fellini-esque idea of having Jay walk into different parts of his life, quickly wears thin and creates an unfortunate “8 1/2” comparison. But the actors, in roles large and small, do wonders. As Jay’s blustery father, Stacey Keach finds just the right notes of envy and resentment to show the roots of Jay’s fame hunger.
Does anyone really know Jay Kelly? His publicist Liz (a terrific Laura Dern) thinks she can handle him. After all, she and Jay’s longtime manager, Ron Sukenick (Adam Sandler), have birthed this cardboard cutout like a baby. But even when Liz throws in the towel, Ron holds steady, to the detriment of his life as a husband and father.
You’ve probably heard how good Sandler is in this role. Wrong. He’s even better. Ron is a tough negotiator, a softie for his wife (cameo courtesy of Greta Gerwig) and kids unless Jay calls or horns in, which is damn near always. Sandler makes sure we see that Jay is more than a meal ticket for Ron. “We did this together,” Jay tells him. And Ron believes it. Ron needs to believe it.
And as the two men sit in a crowded theater—watching the image of the star they created flicker on screen, the movie hits us emotionally where it counts. Sandler could not be better as he gives the film its beating heart.
And what of Clooney? How can an activist with a working knowledge of the real world relate to a character who rarely strays from the confines of his own ego? By finding their common humanity, that’s how. This is Clooney’s most vulnerable performance. There’s an ache in it. Near the end, Baumbach asks Clooney to hold a closeup with no dialogue and take measure of what Jay has lost. The effect is quietly devastating. As a star, Jay always has an option for another take. As a man in his sixties, Jay is running out of chances for do-overs. And it scares him.
Say what you will about this meandering film that drifts into sentiment and subplot overload, “Jay Kelly” hits way more than it misses. And when Baumbach finds his rhythm with Clooney and Sandler working in perfect harmony, “Jay Kelly” has the power to get under your skin and stay there. I’d call that a movie you don’t want to miss.