Jay Kelly

Grade: B+

Netflix is the perfect home for a movie like Jay Kelly. It is dense, rich, heavy, and I felt like I’d lived a lifetime while watching it. The home streaming option allows you to take an intermission, or break it up into chunks if you need to. Though not necessarily in a bad way, I felt every last second of its 132 minute runtime. In this regard, I’d compare it to Roger Miller’s musical Big River. I love the show (I’ve been in it twice), but it is quite lengthy and sometimes exhausting, with enough material for at least two shows. Don’t let this keep you from it. I really liked Jay Kelly. 

The title character is a very famous, wealthy, prolific film actor who has been in the industry for many years. He’s famous enough that his entourage has to frequently remind him that he can’t just waltz out to Starbucks – or, say, travel on a commercial train – by himself, undisguised, without being mobbed. He’s wealthy enough to not only take a private plane to Paris on a whim, but send planes to pick up friends and family. He’s prolific to the point of being a workaholic. Now, looking back, in the neighborhood of 60, he is feeling regret about having missed out on some “regular life” experiences, particularly with his daughters – one grown, and another soon to be graduating high school.

Appropriately, he’s played by George Clooney, who was a long-time childless bachelor. He is married now, and has two daughters, born in 2017. The family primarily lives in France, which is where the bulk of Jay Kelly takes place. Clooney-as-Kelly’s 18 year old daughter is taking a post-graduation vacation through France with a couple friends. He decides to back out of the movie he was supposed to begin filming, and invite himself to her journey in Paris. She is unaware of this, as he stalks her locations to catch up to her.

Of course, he has to take his people with him, which include his publicist Liz (Laura Dern) and his manager Ron (Adam Sandler). Sandler has been working towards a performance like this his entire career, and it’s the best I’ve ever seen him. 30 years ago, I never thought I would say this about him, but I would support an Oscar nomination for his work here. He is a show-stealer. Throughout the movie, we see glimpses of how Liz and Ron have had to put their personal lives on hold for decades, as a couple of worker bees supporting someone else’s dream. 

Ron and Liz have a romantic history that almost went the distance – but now, we see Ron constantly on the phone with his wife, having to just hear about his childrens’ milestones and accomplishments, instead of being there. I questioned how much love was really there; it seemed more like a roommate/convenience situation. One wonders if a future with Liz would have been a better fit. Art imitates life in another way, as Sadie Sandler plays his onscreen daughter, for at least the third time. She’s so great. I hope she can break out of the Sandman’s shadow once in a while and have a career of her own.

Blanks from Jay’s past are filled in for us. There’s a scene where he reunites with Tim (Billy Crudup), an old friend from acting school. Jay unintentionally potentially stole what might have been Tim’s big break. He tagged along at an audition with him, decided to read at the last minute, and the director loved Jay so much, that he got the part, and the rest was history. Jay, and the audience, are privy to flashbacks. With the ones that involve a younger Jay, Clooney is an invisible observer, Christmas Carol style – but then in the more recent episodes, Clooney does participate in reliving them. There’s one that’s set at a therapy session with his older daughter. The therapist (Josh Hamilton) looks confusingly too similar to Crudup as Tim, who has the same occupation. I had to pause it and verify that it was a different person. That’s where the Netflixiness comes in handy.

The final scene makes an artistic choice that I wasn’t sure about at first, but it grew on me. My thought process was “Something looks familiar. Are they doing what I think they’re doing? Yes, they are.” I was ultimately on board with it because it served as an effective way to make it personal. The last line is also one of the first things we hear Clooney say at the beginning. It can be interpreted a couple of different ways in this closing scene. Clooney’s delivery of it is the most vulnerable I’ve ever seen him. Maybe we can say the same about Jay Kelly the man.

Grade: B+