This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Based On a True Story
Plot Overview
Alex's mom married his immigrant dad for a “taste of the exotic.” They enrolled Alex in therapeutic counselling sessions figuring they might do him some good. On parents' visiting day, however, the mom was shocked to hear family secrets revealed to strangers. Alex grew up a normal boy. He met an athletic girl Tess and a year later started dating her. After three years of that, they got engaged. Two years hence they were married. They've been married now for twenty years. Alex Novak (Will Arnett) works in finance. The couple has grown apart over the years (“It's complicated.”) The movie opens in medias res with them agreeing to split up. They are about to have “one last hurrah,” a periodic gathering with friends for fun & games. It's like a piece from Kurt Vonnegut:
It was agreed that night that Eliot and Sylvia should meet for a final farewell in the Bluebird Room of the Marriott Hotel in Indianapolis, three nights hence. This was a tremendously dangerous thing for two such sick and loving people to do. The agreement was reached in a chaos of murmurs and whispers and little cries of loneliness that came at the close of the telephone conversation.“Oh, Eliot, should we?”
“I think we have to.”
“Have to,” she echoed.
“Don't you feel it—that—that we have to?”
“Yes.”
“It's life.”
Sylvia wagged her head. “Oh, damn love—damn love.”
“This will be nice,” I promise.
“I promise, too.” (229)
Alex moves solo into a tiny apartment
and for succor visits a neighboring dive called Comedy Cellar. Not
having the $15 cover charge he puts his name on the bouncer's free
admission list. He gets called on stage for an open mic improv. His
sad story resonates with the patrons, and he comes back again and
again—he was always a clown—and gets a good rep for stand-up. He gets promoted with
an invite to a better club.
His once volleyball
champion wife Tess (Laura Dern) is making a comeback as a
coach. She accepts a dinner (non-)date with a (married?) male
friend in his 40s for some advice. By and by, they decide to get
out of there and head to a nearby comedy club. We can pretty much
guess that Alex's wife is going to catch him again spilling the
beans to strangers.
Ideology
The not unexpected romance that blossoms again between the two leads is so convoluted as to be preposterous were it not for the movie world preparing us for it. Think along the lines of, (Prov. 30:18-19) “There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.” The writer of this saying in the Good Book cannot track an eagle drifting on the air currents, a slithering serpent on a rock, or a ship tossed on the sea, much less “the way of a man with a maid.”
The air show in this movie is a
picture of Tess in her volleyball glory days, which Alex blew
up and hangs on his wall. It's taken from the back, so we don't see
her face as she's leaping for the ball. “Look how high, you
are,” Alex tells her. “It's not me now,” she
replies. A friend suggests that the picture be turned around so we
can see her face. It's a metaphor for her marriage challenge. She
at that time was fulfilled by her volleyball sport, not her
husband & children. She would need to turn around and find
fulfillment in caring for her family now.
“The way of a serpent upon a rock” would correspond to a domestic scene in which they are picking lice out of each other's hair. Alex's problem was not knowing the cause(s) of Tess's silences from time to time. He would need to dig in to discover them just as he ferrets out the lice.
“A ship tossed on the sea” corresponds to their friend Christine (Andra Day) who's split from her husband for seven years to take up residence in Salt Lake City. The association of such a place with Mormons brings up shades of “polygamy.” Seeing other people now might help our main couple appreciate each other more.
“The way of a man with a maid” is a challenge to sort out, which makes for interesting drama here.
Production Values
“” (2025) was directed by Bradley Cooper. It was written by Bradley Cooper, Will Arnett and Mark Chappell. It stars Will Arnett, Laura Dern and Andra Day. Arnett gave a dynamic performance for the backbone of the movie. Dern had a ploddingly good chemistry with Arnett. The friends in general were an asset both to supplement the story and to add the spice of diversity as they worked out their own problems. The children (Blake Kane and Calvin Knegten) were not to be ignored.
The cinematography makes extensive use of closeups. The storyline already is heavy on unveiling private matters, so putting in the closeups on the big screen only makes it seem overly telling. Add to that a moving camera that can't seem to get the angle right, and we've got the makings of a nervous audience. But the topic is not one to set our minds at ease anyway. As the couple is going through their issues, their friends and children are not unaffected. The movie medium but capitalizes with the mise-en-scène. Runtime is 2 hours.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
I pooled a ride to the theater with some friends with whom we shared some of our marital status nuances, which were an eye-opener. We were all Christians and we were all scriptural so none of this was a problem, just a revelation. Looking at other people's challenges can sometimes help us put our own into perspective. This movie is good for that.
Movie Ratings
Action Factor: Weak action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well, at least you can't see the strings. Video Occasion: Good for Groups. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Bible quotation is from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Vonnegut, Kurt. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, copyright © 1965 by Kurt Vonnegut. Appearing in Three Complete Novels. New York: Wings Books, 1995. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org