Serious business, comedy. So don’t expect a ribald chucklefest in director Bradley Cooper's tale of a man stumbling from a fragmenting marriage and middle age crisis into the exorcising salvation of a new-found career in stand-up.
Will Arnett you’ll likely already know and love from Arrested Development as the deliciously contemptible Gob, the arrogant oldest son whose madly ambitious schemes invariably come to naught.
Blessed with silkily effortless perfect timing, powerful physical presence and a broken-featured ugly beauty, Arnett now reins in his comedy chops for what is in essence a straight dramatic role, only sporadically punctuated with snatches of stand-up.
You might call it “doing a Robin Williams”, taking the same career turn into serious parts that made the late star an acclaimed Oscar winner.
Haunted and hollow-eyed as we meet him, Alex (Arnett) is contemplating his crumbling marriage and a family that’s falling apart.
While Tess (Laura Dern) remains ensconced with the children in their to-die-for house (feast your eyes on the glossy magazine lifestyle), he is now holed up in a modest bachelor pad in the city and facing an uncertain future.
His only consolation is that the pair remain on politely speaking terms as they edge towards divorce, but Alex is quietly heartbroken, still holding a candle for the imposing Tess, a former Olympian netballer.
Then he happens to visit a bar one evening where the only way around the entry fee is to line up as one of the have-a-go amateur comedy performers. “Why not?” he thinks and braves the stage for the first time.
A few minutes unleashing his angst over the state of his relationship proves to be a winner with the crowd, and suddenly Alex is a man reborn, with a newfound purpose in life and even, just possibly, a life-long vocation.
Arnett gives his all in the stand-up sequences, with the camera so close up you can see almost every pore, never striking a false note even under this sustained extreme scrutiny. Both Alex in his carefully unhurried performance style and Arnett in his performance are scrupulous purveyors of truth and truth alone.
Off-stage, the story follows Alex and Tess keeping alive the possibility of reconciliation. Plotwise, that’s about in it in a film which is very loosely based upon British comedy star John Bishop, who enthralled Arnett when they met with the real-life story of his career origins (look out for a fleeting glimpse of a Liverpool FC shirt in homage to his home town team).
But the occasional sense of dramatic slim pickings and passing longueurs is more than offset by the brilliant craft of the performances and commitment to the characters.
Bradley Cooper provides a little light relief with a highly entertaining cameo as a ludicrously self-important struggling actor, Arnie. As a director he fully commits to his cast, and they reward him, and us, most of all Arnett, who’s a revelation. He didn’t get the nod in this week’s Oscar nominations, but future Robin Williams-style glory surely beckons soon.
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