Jay Kelly
Synopsis: An aging American movie star looks back on his career and personal life choices as he travels to a tribute for him in Italy.
I’m crazy about movies with smart dialogue – lots of it. Jay Kelly, written by Noah Baumbach and Emily Mortimer has reams of it.
Jay Kelly is a big movie star, a sixty-ish man who’s looking back on his decades in the movie business after receiving an invitation from a film society. The tribute will be in Tuscany.
The movie Jay Kelly needed a lead with the charisma to be believable as a near-legend. George Clooney fills the shoes quite nicely. The role is some of his finest work alongside Michael Clayton and The Descendants.
Like Clooney, Jay Kelly is from Kentucky; a long trip from California in every way. Clooney had his breakthrough role as Dr. Doug Ross in the television series ER. The only misstep he had as the popular character was a few episodes in which he sported Caesar bangs.
In interviews Clooney seemed nonchalant about stardom. Jay Kelly seems to have craved the excitement of stardom. I wish that the promotional materials had included footage of Clooney & Kelly interviewing each other. We’ll have to settle for an interview in which Clooney attributes the character being ‘kind of a jerk’ to early stardom. Clooney started ER when he was in his 30’s –an age when he was less susceptible to being too impressed with himself. Perhaps his responsibilities as caretaker of his Vietnamese pot-bellied pig, Max, helped him to mature as well.
Jay Kelly begins in Los Angeles, the western world’s starriest city. Jay’s manager, Ron (Adam Sandler), discusses business with Jay as they prepare to attend a funeral. Will Jay, he wants to know, accept the invitation to a retrospective of his work in Tuscany? Tell them no, Jay says.
The funeral is for Peter (Jim Broadbent), a director who gave Jay his big break when he was a young man. Full of industry types conversing outside the memorial site in the glare of the SoCal sun, Ron reflects, “Death is always so surprising…especially in L.A.”
Jay runs into an old friend, Timothy (Billy Crudup) from acting school. He hasn’t seen or likely thought of him for years. They meet for a drink. Jay strokes Timothy’s ego, saying what great talent he had. Back in the day, Timothy had asked Jay to go to an audition with him. When the director sees and hears the two of them, guess who he likes. And it turns out that seemingly Zen Timothy actually isn’t okay with his civilian life: You stole my life! he shouts to a blindsided Jay. Maybe Jay was named Sexiest Man of the Year by People magazine just like his portrayer George Clooney, and this was the final straw for thwarted Timothy.
In a change of heart, Jay calls up his manager and says he will do the tribute in Tuscany, after all. I’m hoping his character has Oscars, like Clooney who won for best supporting actor in Syriana and as a producer on Argo.
Oh, and he’s dropping out of a scheduled movie too. Jay finishes by announcing he is headed to Europe to find his daughter Daisy (Grace Edwards). College-bound Daisy is in France with friends.
Ron is busy with his family, playing in a tennis tournament with his teen daughter when he got the call from Jay about his new plans. Ron may as well have NICE GUY tattooed on him because we see at every turn how sincerely he devotes himself to his family while trying to manage his unpredictable clients. He calls everyone puppy –a strange endearment to be sure. So now Ron has to leave puppy daughter and puppy wife (Greta Gerwig) to do damage control for puppy client.
Soon Jay is on a flight to France with his manager, publicist Liz (Laura Dern), personal assistant Meg (Thaddea Graham) and hairstylist Candy (Emily Mortimer) in tow. And Daisy? Once they meet up on a train, she’s surprised and not particularly pleased to see him, his entourage and the excitement he generates among the passengers.
Jay greets the fellow travelers with bonhomie and a sly ability to dodge any interaction beyond the superficial. On the train, there is a situation where Jay rushes in to be the hero. His intentions are good, but he inadvertently brings even more sycophantic attention onto himself. His handlers are tired of putting out fires brought on by his whims.
Jay gets to Tuscany and the luxe accommodations for the festival. I wondered how far the shoot was from Clooney’s palazzo on Lake Como. Anyhow, after the train trip, only Ron is left with Jay. His daughter continues with her travel plans and the rest of Jay’s entourage return to other obligations.
Jay is determined to now make a big deal out of the tribute he hadn’t wanted by inviting his daughters and his father to the tribute. His manager cautiously informs him that another actor, Ben Alcock (Patrick Wilson) will be a co-honoree. The film society had scrambled to replace Jay when he had bailed. Jay grimaces, then shrugs it off.
Jay, full on living his dream of movie stardom, isn’t one to self-reflect. But the retrospective has got him thinking. His family life took a backseat to his ambitions. He thinks about his divorces and his daughters, and his frequent work trips.
We see a flashback of his grown daughter Jessica (Riley Keough), a pre-school teacher, bringing him to a session with her therapist. Jay fusses, saying he thought they were going to be spending real time together on this visit. Instead, she has her therapist Carter (Josh Hamiliton) read a letter to her dad from her ten-year-old self. Jay doesn’t appreciate the letter blaming him for her heartache after he left her mom and their family. He’s especially peeved by the male therapist using a little girl’s voice while reading the missive.
While charming and good-natured, Jay glides so high that he’s effectively out-of-touch with the grounded people in his life. Jay’s publicist, whom he’s worked with for many years, cautions manager Ron to not feel too sympathetic to Jay because the star doesn’t know how to be a good friend. Later, a disappointed Ron tells Jay that he’s been a good friend to him, but Jay doesn’t reciprocate. Without rancor, Jay smiles and ventures, “My friend who takes fifteen percent of my income.”
Jay Kelly the character feels distinct from the vibes that George Clooney, actual person, sends out. You can’t watch this movie and not think about what you know, or think you know, about Clooney. While Kelly has a history of ex-wives and children, Clooney was famously, and happily, marriage-shy after an early failed marriage. Who knew that the man who dated models, actresses and a WWE entertainer would end up proposing to a brilliant British-Lebanese barrister, Amal Alamuddin. Doing a complete turnaround to family life, the couple welcomed twins and went on to live in Europe. When Clooney appeared on Broadway with an acclaimed performance in Goodnight and Goodluck as Edward R. Murrow, I hoped that George’s family was residing with him for the run. I don’t think that Jay Kelly would be interested in theater.
Overall, you’ll be pulled in by Clooney’s movie star charisma. And be glad you don’t have to deal with stardom yourself. Who wants everyone in the train car staring at you? Although I wouldn’t mind a free trip to Tuscany.
Movie Loon 