The film directed by Noah Baumbach — that he co-wrote with Emily Mortimer, who also has a supporting role in the film — stars an ensemble cast that includes George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup and Alba Rohrwacher.
Jay Kelly follows the eponymous famous actor (played by George Clooney) as he confronts the later years of his career, pondering upon his life choices and how they’ve affected his family relationships and friendships. The narrative begins with the passing of Peter Schneider (Jim Broadbent), the film director that changed Kelly’s career and life. At the funeral, Jay unexpectedly meets Timothy (Billy Crudup) his old friend, roommate, and classmate. This reunion brings to light how Jay had overstepped his more talented friend, in the name of competitiveness and ambition. He seems to have cleared also his loved ones in the name of his career. As a result, his two daughters Daisy (Grace Edwards) and Jess (Riley Keough) are now grown and have no intention of spending time with him during his few days off between filming. Jay Kelly’s family now consists of his collaborators, who follow him wherever he goes, especially his faithful manager Ron (Adam Sandler) and his publicist Liz (Laura Dern). Jay Kelly’s entire entourage accompanies him on a European trip, from France to Italy, that is meant to reconnect him with his offspring. What seems to be a road movie turns into a trip down memory lane. Each stop transforms into a fragment of memory, a set that resurfaces like a dream. Therefore, the real journey unfolds within the protagonist’s mind as his remembrances emerge like present circumstances.
Jay Kelly premiered at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival and is currently available on Netflix, where you may also find the one hour documentary The Making of Jay Kelly, that takes you behind the scenes of this production. From the first image that appears on the silver screen, the message that comes across is that the film is a celebration of filmmaking and creativity, but also subtends to an internal struggle. It begins with Sylvia Plath’s quote: “It’s a hell of a responsibility to be yourself. It’s much easier somebody else or nobody at all.” This sets the mood for the entire motion picture, just as the opening scene that last for 5 minutes, which was shot in one sequence and was entirely choreographed to create an allegory of Jay’s life, that is later voiced out when he says: “All my memories are movies. Movies are pieces of time.”
Throughout the film, director of photography Linus Sandgren bestows a wondrous and uncanny mysticism to the film. His breathtaking long takes transform the past into the present, while Nicholas Britell’s score propels the story between nostalgia and rebirth. The old time allure owes its magic to the efforts of production designer Mark Tildesley, who coalesced Malibu locations (including the former house of Jack Nicholson) with sets built in London’s Shepperton Studios. In the U.K., the Ashridge Estate served as the place to shoot the forest scene, where Jay seems to be lost in the landscape and overwhelmed by bitterness. Other locations involved making the Milano Centrale train station look like the Parisian railway, and then recreating the inside of the train in London, grasping inspiration from the Gio Ponti vehicle admired in Milan. Ultimately, the Tuscan town of Pienza, south of Siena, was chosen as a location which had just the right central square for the film festival’s party in honour of Jay and his tribute — that was shot inside Arezzo’s Petrarca Theatre. The way in which George Clooney’s filmography is used to create the celebratory-reel of Jay Kelly is utterly virtuoso. It allows Clooney and Kelly to merge, as they both watch life flash before their eyes.
George Clooney’s performance reveals how stardom can be a fragile entity, that relies on a collective construct: little is needed for an actor to become a legend or remain a promising unknown. Jay is a fallible man who needs to repeat like a mantra, in front of the mirror, his name amongst those of other great actors: “Jay Kelly, Cary Grant, Jay Kelly, Clark Gable, Jay Kelly, Robert De Niro, Jay Kelly.” He needs to reassure himself of belonging to the pantheon of Hollywood stars. The kid who started out in Kentucky, before becoming a living legend of the film industry, needs to confront the role that he has always struggled the most in playing: himself.
Could we consider this film a male version of Sunset Boulevard? What is certain is that one can perceive Baumbach’s desire to reach the atmospheres of some of Federico Fellini’s great films, above all 8½. If in the Italian film there was a film director struggling to keep up with professional expectations, in Jay Kelly, the main character wants to make amends with his loved ones that he has sacrificed in the name of his profession. At his age, Jay can look back on the years gone by and reflect on the choices and mistakes he’s made, with the illusion of being able to change the course of his life, or at least ask for another take…
Final Grade: B+
Photos credits: Courtesy of IMDb