As I watched George Clooney in Jay Kelly (Netflix) as the ‘Film Star’ Jay Kelly—and who better qualified than Clooney for the role?—I thought of Uttam Kumar in Satyajit Ray’s 1966 classic study of a celebrity’s isolation Nayak.
Between Arindam Mukherjee in Nayak and Jay Kelly in Jay Kelly, I wonder who is more lonely? Jay’s loneliness in Noah Baumbach’s latest offering is not easy to decode. He is surrounded by people who he thinks care for him. But no one really does. One of his daughters, Jessica (Riley Keough), has flown the coop, and his younger daughter, Daisy (Grace Edwards), is about to do the same.
An old friend with an abiding grudge (Billy Crudup , in a plot-defining cameo) turns up to remind Jay Kelly of what an asshole he is. Jay’s father (Stacy Keach) leaves Tuscany hours before Jay is supposed to get a lifetime-achievement award, which he is supposed to share with another actor who is there in Tuscany with his entire extended family.
Yeah, yeah, rub it in.
Jay essentially has nobody to share his moment of glory with, except his faithful, long-depressed manager Ron Sukenick, who is played so effectively by Adam Sandler. This feels like a two-hero film, one of course completely from behind the scenes.
The fabulous Laura Dern, who plays Jay Kelly’s publicist Liz, keeps reminding Ron that they consider Jay their family, but he doesn’t. And you know what? Liz may be right! Jay Kelly, for all his outward show of gallantry and generosity (during a long train journey, a la Nayak, he runs after a thief to retrieve an old lady’s purse), Jay has become progressively self-centred. He has stopped listening to those around him. Like many actors, he pretends to listen.
There is this brilliant moment between Jay and Ron where Ron is trying to tell Jay about his family’s unhappiness about Ron spending most of his time with Jay. But Jay is on his trip. The train ride to Tuscany becomes a metaphor for all that Jay Kelly has lost on his journey to stardom.
It is not a story we haven’t seen before. Rather than trying to dodge the cliches in the plot, director Noah Baumbach celebrates them.
There is a widescreen magnetism to George Clooney’s presence, luckily not lost on the OTT platform. He revels in his character’s iconized status while often taking a step back to let us know that his own personal superstardom is distanced from the character, though not enough to make us feel the distance.
Sandler is every bit as cogent as Clooney, maybe even more. Sandler and Clooney build a mutual rapport for their characters with ease and fluency. Oh, by the way, that is Greta Gerwig, the director, Noah Baumbach’s wife, playing Clooney’s estranged spouse. Adam Sandler’s daughter plays her own father daughter in this film about lost, irretrievable family ties.
At the end when the lights are dimmed and Jay Kelly’s name is announced for the lifetime-achievement award, we see something Jay doesn’t want us to see: a tear roll down his posh cheek.
