Bradley Cooper’s third directorial feature about a struggling marriage through the eyes of a stand-up comedian buzzes with energy and emotion.
So far in his short directorial career, Bradley Cooper has wowed the Oscar set with his contemporary interpretation of A Star Is Born starring Lady Gaga and Maestro, a biopic of Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre. Both are immaculately directed, with Cooper seizing the opportunity to go big with the performances and home in on intimate moments with incisive clarity. The same can be said of his third feature, a charming rom-com drama written by Cooper, Will Arnett and Mark Chappell.
The film was inspired by the Liverpudlian comedian John Bishop’s midlife-crisis marriage story, which he has spoken about in his stand-up shows. Arnett stars as a fictionalised version of Bishop, renamed Alex Novak, who lives with wife, Tess (Laura Dern), a former Olympian volleyball player. But don’t worry! They don’t attempt Scouse accents, as everything has been transposed to New York.
The film plunges the viewer directly into Tess and Alex’s situation. They have recently come to an amicable agreement to separate. Alex leaves the suburban family home where he has been living with Tess and their two kids to move to an apartment in the city. He stumbles upon a comedy club (filmed at the Comedy Cellar in Manhattan) and to avoid paying the cover charge he signs up for a slot. As he reveals his deepest emotional life on stage he feels compelled to enter the comedy circuit.
Separation is a messy affair and love is a never-ending carousel of confusing feelings, bad timing and poor communication; Max Ophüls knew this, as his dizzying La Ronde shows. The perceptive yet never cynical script acknowledges this with an early scene where Tess and Alex are on their way home from a small gathering with friends. Alive with mischief they scoff a magic brownie on the subway. Cooper imbues this sequence with invigorating energy and emotion, with Dern and Arnett translating how much the pair care for one another through their delightful and affecting performances. They say everything they need to say with their eyes and sadly resigned body language, as they recognise the need to get to grips with their identities outside marriage. Eventually they come back together for a clandestine relationship sparked by a chance encounter, and the actors’ effervescent chemistry powers the film along wonderfully.
The mostly down-to-earth screenplay wraps everything up a bit too abruptly with an extremely on-the-nose musical choice. Cooper’s kinetic camerawork and Matthew Libatique’s dynamic cinematography mirrors the exhausting balancing act of middle age perfectly fine without having to spell it out for the audience.
