Noah Baumbach’s ‘Jay Kelly’ Journeys Through the Perils of Fame With a Contemplative George Clooney 

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George Clooney has arrived at the stage where he can now play an aging star reflecting on the tableaux of his life. This particular genre of storytelling is all about time, since being famous can no doubt make the clock feel truly rushed. It is no secret that celebrity brings with it a mountain of commitments, globe-trotting and, depending on your desires, little time to be a traditional family. Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly” is most engaging when Clooney and Adam Sandler’s performances capture these realities. With its wide ambitions and slightly rickety delivery, this movie nonetheless thrives on these men playing roles they clearly know inside out.

Clooney is the Jay Kelly of the title, a handsome movie star finishing yet another movie. On set he does a death scene that inspires applause and gratitude from the director. Jay’s manager, Ron (Sandler) hovers around like a dutiful parent, while handling his own family’s issues over the phone. A series of events generates a micro-existential crisis for Jay. His youngest daughter Daisy (Grace Edwards) announces she’s going on a trip to Northern Italy for the summer, instead of spending it with Jay. Sadder news arrives when Jay learns that Peter Schneider (Jim Broadbent), the director who gave him his big break, has died. The actor had turned down the aged director’s request to put his name on a new project to get funding. And then there’s Timothy (Billy Crudup), an old acting school friend who shows up at Peter’s funeral. An outing for drinks gets dark when Timothy expresses his resentments towards Jay. Years ago, Timothy had taken Jay along to do a reading for a film Peter was directing, which is how the latter discovered Jay. Timothy went on to become a child psychiatrist. Jay decides to get away by going to Northern Italy, meet up with Daisy, and receive an arts festival tribute he had originally turned down.

Needless to say this is a movie made by artists who can easily relate to the stages of life being depicted. Baumbach has been a respected director for about 20 years while Clooney and Sandler have clocked in over 30 in the spotlight. The director’s screenplay with co-writer Emily Mortimer (an actor with a small role as well in the film) is most intriguing when just observing what life is like for an actor that has reached Jay aka Clooney’s status. Much of it is what we already tend to know. The manager handles the star like an overgrown child, providing reassurances and support. It is also no secret that this business can take a toll on families. Jay’s older daughter Jessica (Riley Keough), lives just fine as a school teacher estranged from her dad. Baumbach isn’t blaming the industry for Jay being a bad father, instead observing that he always knew what he wanted and attempted to juggle. We see his ambition clearly in a great flashback scene recalling the moment he outshined Timothy in the reading for Peter’s film. Is he at fault for Timothy’s career never taking off? Even the latter painfully admits he just didn’t have ambition. 

For a moment “Jay Kelly” feels like it almost wants to be a road trip movie once Jay gets on a train in Italy with a stressed Ron and publicist Liz (Laura Dern). Colorful locals and tourists notice the star and he invites them all to his upcoming tribute. Baumbach is so undecided on what to focus on that the trip comes to an abrupt halt, after a quirky moment where Jay gets to show off his capacity for sudden heroics when chasing down a purse snatcher. Small side storylines are abandoned, like the lingering details of a past tryst between Ron and Liz. The director’s most elegant visual idea in the film occurs on the train, when Jay gazes into compartments that become scenes from his younger days. He remembers shooting a love scene with an actress, the moment becoming a great view into the workings of cinema. The wobbly yet worthy thesis Baumbach is attempting is to explore how Jay is so consumed by his work that even he wonders if he is truly being himself, or his famous persona. We wish there were a few more details given (who is the mother of Jay’s children?). Never does the material reach the heights of truly great films about this kind of world and its crossroads, such as “The Great Beauty” or “La Dolce Vita.” Sofia Coppola also did it much better in “On the Rocks,” and with less tourist vistas.

Sandler provides the other key performance that makes the material sustain an almost feel-good level of engagement. If Clooney represents the big shiny center of attention, Sandler’s Ron is the man behind the curtain whose livelihood depends on the stability of the client. He too is reaching a point in life where changes in direction could be healthy. When another client (Patrick Wilson) announces he wants to go on without a manager for a while, Ron breaks down as if this were a couple breaking up. It’s one of Sandler’s best recent moments. Forever defined by his own comedic personas, this performance is also a form of meta commentary by Sandler on his career. His dramatic work has rarely been weak and always capable of a special empathy. Yet, “Happy Gilmore” will likely always be cited more quickly than “Uncut Gems” or “Punch-Drunk Love.” You feel for Ron even as Jay and others not so jokingly bemoan that managers take 15% of their income. Subtly we see why Ron deserves it, since his life is so tethered to Jay’s. He could be at a tennis practice with his daughter, but when Jay has a problem it means he has to go. A curiosity of this film is how it runs at 2 hours and 12 minutes and feels so sparse.  One great performance that is so brief is by Stacy Keach as Jay’s rowdy working class father, who visits Italy for the tribute and entertains everyone with anecdotes. 

When the lights dim and Jay receives his tribute, Baumbach and Clooney finally seem to settle on a clear idea, which seems to be that the journey was indeed worth it. In a wonderful meta moment, clips rush on a screen from actual George Clooney films, going all the way back to 1997’s “The Peacemaker.” There is the younger actor in “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Up in the Air.” Ironically, what makes Clooney a perfect study for this film is that he is undeniably famous, but can we really call him one of the greats? Smart and charming, Clooney clearly had the talent to make it but isn’t mentioned in the same breath as Sean Penn or even early Russell Crowe. His greatest artistic feat has been as a director with “Good Night, and Good Luck,” with the exception of his sole Oscar-winning role in “Syriana.” Undeniably, he has been in excellent entertainments with a presence justifying his star power. “Jay Kelly” when it works is a convincing study at the emotional toll it sometimes takes to get there.

“Jay Kelly” releases Nov. 14 in select theaters and begins streaming Dec. 5 on Netflix.