"Jay Kelly", (the movie), is, for the most part, beautifully acted but highly sentimental in that 'wear-your-heart-on-your-sleeve' kind of way that redemptive Hollywood crowd-pleasers so often are and it's really quite a difficult movie to like. Has Noah Baumbach sold his soul for a mess of George Clooney's pottage? Why, I kept asking myself, did Baumbach make such a lifeless picture and why is Clooney playing such an egotistical asshole who goes on a redemptive journey to Italy to bond with his daughter? Surely Clooney the actor is nothing like Jay Kelly, (the man), so is this finally nothing but his Oscar-bait role? It might have been had Baumbach given him something to chew on but his screenplay here, (co-written with actor Emily Mortimer), is his most insipid to date.
What keeps the movie chugging along, (barely), is a superb supporting cast headed by a world-weary Adam Sandler and a more than usually subdued Laura Dern and if Jim Broadbent, Emily Mortimer, Stacy Keach, Patrick Wilson and, best of all, Billy Cruddup contribute nothing more than glorified cameos they are, at least, superb cameos and deserving of a lot more than the treacle that has been poured over them. Another 'movie about the movies' but one of least of them; something of a mess, in fact, from start to finish.
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