Ezra
Max (Bobby Cannavale) is a struggling stand-up comic divorced from the woman he still loves, Jenna (Rose Byrne), who he shares an autistic son with, a boy he adores and frequently uses as part of his act. But when the boy is expelled from school and his doctor recommends Resperdal, an anti-hallucinogenic, Max assaults the man and briefly ends up in jail. With his life in a spiral, Max gets word from his agent Jayne (Whoopi Goldberg) that a clip reel she put together has landed him a gig on Jimmy Kimmel but no airline ticket and so he hijacks both his dad’s Cadillac and his son to drive cross country with “Ezra.”
Laura's Review: B-
This multi-generational father and son tale based on writer Tony Spiridakis’s ("If Lucy Fell") own experiences with an autistic son creates a lot of tension with an inadvertent Amber Alert instigating an F.B.I. chase, but is burnished with warmth and humor throughout by director Tony Goldwyn ("Conviction"). Cannavale puts it all on the line as Ezra’s dad, one of his best performances, his timing right on target as a stand-up comic, his anxiety screaming from his pores. Robert De Niro also excels as his difficult dad Stan, a former chef whose confrontational temperament forced a family move to the sticks during Max’s youth.
Cinematographer Daniel Moder ("Flag Day") creates intimacy with a lot of handheld work, giving us an audience perspective in the opening scene where we see Max telling jokes based on Ezra’s forthright behavior, the unfiltered truths which threaten to land him in a special needs school. Things escalate when Ezra runs out of his mom’s house at night and is clipped by a cab in an effort to save his dad because of something he overheard from his mom’s boyfriend (Goldwyn), a reason none of the adults learn about until much later.
The ensuing, double-pronged road trip includes revelatory stops with Max’s old friend Nick (Rainn Wilson) and old flame Grace (Vera Farmiga) where both father and son learn important truths about themselves while Jenna connects the dots after forcing Stan, her son’s ‘Pop Pop,’ to join the hunt for father and son. One of the film’s best scenes involves Stan, cornered in his kitchen as Jenna throws rocks at his windows, finally getting involved by calling Max before joining his former daughter-in-law on the road like a pair from a mismatched buddy comedy. Byrne invests her flustered mom with all the conflicting emotions of a woman terrified for her son while still loving the man who took him. Young William A. Fitzgerald, on the autism spectrum himself, is a great foil for all the overly protective adults careening around him. Support is solid too, from Goldberg’s affectionately exasperated agent, to Wilson’s mellow pal and Farmiga’s grounding influence.
“Ezra” does lean a little too much into an overtly Hollywood happy ending, one where everything is tied up just a little too neatly, but this film about a fractured family uniting from various corners to get over an obstacle and coming out on the other side with deeper understanding is a real crowd pleaser with a lot of heart.
Robin's Review: C+
Bleecker Street opens "Ezra" in theaters on 5/31/24.
