Cinematic Considerations
The titular character in the movie “Jay Kelly” follows an older actor on the precipice of becoming an empty-nester. Oscar-winning actor George Clooney, who plays Kelly, shines in the film’s quieter moments.
The film centers on Kelly’s reunion with an old classmate that sets him off on an international midlife crisis of sorts as Kelly seeks to find who he is in a world where everyone sees him only as the roles he plays.
Clooney’s involvement is effortless. He reaches a level of introspection, selfreflection and authenticity that aligns with Director Noah Baumbach’s critical commentary of what ifs.
The overly sentimental and melancholic side of the character Kelly is where the film reaches its heights and becomes a thoroughly engaging portrait of a conflicted man.
Yet the contrivances that Baumbach thrusts upon the narrative to achieve these moments of poignant sentimentality have neither the comedic spark nor the dramatic nuance to maintain audience interest.
Even Adam Sandler’s supporting role, as Kelly’s longtime manager Ron, isn’t given the right amount of character development. There’s simply too much going on in the orbit of “Jay Kelly” for anyone to get close to a fully defined supporting role.
Talented character actors like Laura Dern, Emily Mortimer — who also co-wrote the film — and Thaddea Graham are largely wasted as members of Kelly’s entourage.
Their scenes orbit Kelly without ever fully shaping or challenging him. Their characters, while engaging in brief flashes, are underwritten. These characters feel more like extensions of the film’s Hollywood satire than meaningful emotional counterweights, leaving the ensemble broad but not deep.
Isolated moments with Kelly’s family offer glimpses of emotional authenticity, that feel disconnected from the metatextual Hollywood motif that dominates the film’s first half.
Baumbach breezes through decades of generational trauma and absent parenthood through disjointed, disparate scenes between Kelly and his daughters — played by Riley Keough and Grace Edwards — as well as Kelly’s own father issues. The subplot with his dad, who is unnamed in the film and portrayed by Stacy Keach, is flown out to help bridge the third act into its pensive conclusion.
Baumbach has Kelly walk through his own past — watching younger versions of himself in casting rooms and on recreated movie sets — to reinforce the emotional struggles he’s feeling in the present.
While the effect visually striking, its execution is haphazard from a narrative standpoint. It plays as too much show versus tell, and it pushes the worldview of “Jay Kelly” beyond what this limited story is able to achieve.
Although Baumbach’s track record and the film’s Hollywood-centric narrative make “Jay Kelly” obvious Oscar bait, there’s not enough momentum for it to become a major player. It may scrape together attention in categories like Best Picture or Original Screenplay, but Clooney and Sandler face fields far too competitive for to make a meaningful run.
Casual audiences will likely feel drawn to “Jay Kelly” thanks to its easy accessibility on Netflix (its debut is Friday) and Clooney’s charming, introspective turn. The film’s uneven structure may keep it from resonating long after the credits.
For a story built on the weight of choices and the lives that might have been, “Jay Kelly” itself feels caught between versions of the film it could be — revealing flashes of something deeper without ever fully stepping into them.
Matt Ward is a local film critic, who is also an official Rotten Tomatoes reviewer. Continue the conversation online at www.cinematicconsiderations. com.
