It’s a true story, and when Bradley Cooper heard it from Will Arnett, they knew it was a movie.
A man’s marriage falls apart, he leaves home and becomes a stand up comic. One day his wife, on a date, wanders into a comedy club on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village and hears him telling jokes about her.
In the movie, “Is This Thing On,” a gentle closer for the NY Film Festival, at least, it piques her curiosity.
Cooper has already proven himself a director of “event” movies with “A Star is Born” and “Maestro.” So why not try something small, intimate, and personal. He knows relationships, so this couple is not unlike the rock stars in “Star is Born” or Leonard and Felicia Bernstein.
The difference is these are mere mortals, just middle class people in the suburbs. Will Arnett is Alex, who has a job in finance but we never see. His marriage to Tessa, played with precision by Laura Dern, is no longer operable. They have two small boys but decide it’s best to separate and see if there’s life left in either of them.
Cooper has parents played by the under-seen Christine Ebersole and Ciaran Hinds (great casting). Andra Day, the brilliant singer who was nominated for playing Billie Holliday a few years ago, and Cooper himself, are their best friends. Sean Hayes and Scott Icenogle are amiable friends, too in a “Big Chill” sort of gang.
“Is This Thing On?” is a movie as much about stand up comedy as “Marty Supreme” is about ping pong. (This is not “Mrs. Maisel.”) The “thing” that might be ‘on’ is not a microphone but a marriage falling apart. The story is written by John Bishop– who something like this really happened to, Arnett, and Mark Chappell. They approach it like a John Updike or Cheever story updated with some laughs and cell phones and without any heavy drinking, just malaise.
Cooper is really a director, and he looks for moments in all of the scenes that lift what could be well trodden business into something sweet, poetic, and funny. My favorite concerns Alex framing a huge picture of Tessa when she played Olympic volleyball, seeing her jump from behind. It should be from the front, Cooper as the pal suggests, why don’t you just turn it around so you can see her face?
Any movie that features Andra Day singing “Amazing Grace” is worth your time, so when she and Hayes and the others hum it aloud in a scene with no dialogue otherwise, the movie rises like a souffle.
Will these stupid happy people get back together? You’ll have to wait to find out. “Is This Thing On?” is not heavy drama, but it’s needed break from reality with smart talk that raises reasonable expectations. It’s coming in December, but really it’s a March movie. Nonetheless, go see it for pure enjoyment.
Not for nothing, but the festival gave the film and itself a neat closing party across the street at Lincoln Restaurant, with the whole cast mixing and mingling. Among the guests: recent Oscar winner Adrien Brody and Georgina Chapman. Skipping the party: “Friends” star Courteney Cox and boyfriend rocker Johnny McDaid.
