Ezra
Directed by Tony Goldwyn
Written by Tony Spiridakis
Starring Bobby Cannavale, Rose Byrne and Robert De Niro
Classification PG; 100 minutes
Opens in select theatres May 31
The new dramedy Ezra lands in theatres as a well-intentioned but messy movie that feels lab-engineered for the Tribeca Festival – a similarly well-intentioned but messy event founded by Robert De Niro, which partly serves a launching pad for movies made by and starring the actor’s famous, mostly Lower Manhattan-dwelling, friends. (For whatever reason, Ezra had its world premiere not at Tribeca but at last year’s edition of TIFF.)
Starring De Niro and Bobby Cannavale as two generations of “whaddya talking about!?” Noo Yawkers and directed by sometimes actor Tony Goldwyn, so much of Ezra feels like a “favour” film – a good excuse for a well-liked director to persuade friends to hang out with each other for a few weeks of shooting, without delivering something worthy of their collected talents. So while it is heartening that Goldywn was able to corral not only his two leads, but also Cannavale’s real-life wife Rose Byrne and such good sports as Vera Farmiga, Rainn Wilson and Whoopi Goldberg, it would have been even more generous if the filmmaker had given his pals something interesting to do.
There is a brief flicker of hope during Ezra’s amiable first half-hour, which follows an on-the-outs NY comedian named Max (Cannavale) as he struggles to care for the title character, his young autistic son (William Fitzgerald). Life isn’t easy for Max. In addition to dealing with Ezra’s challenging behaviour, Max has to balance the demands of his ex-wife Jenna (Byrne) and the grudges of his father Stan (De Niro), whom he’s been bunking with since his divorce. But Max also doesn’t have too many people to blame for his high-level anxiety but himself.
Quick to anger and lacking any filter, Max is far from a father who knows best, boasting unsavoury traits inherited from his pops that could make for a nicely complicated and layered character study. Yet the film, written by Tony Spiridakis, isn’t interested in the depths of complications so much as the appearance of them, and too quickly the script pushes its audience to get on the side of a hothead who makes one deplorable decision after another.
Ezra follows Max Bernal (Bobby Cannavale), a stand-up comedian living with his father (Robert De Niro, left), while struggling to co-parent his autistic son Ezra (introducing William Fitzgerald).VVS
And make no mistake: this is truly horrifying stuff that, were Goldwyn to drop his twinkly-eyed perspective, could anchor a domestic horror flick. While the film has Jenna frequently call out Max on his bad behaviour, her concerns are treated as the naggings of a woman who just doesn’t get it. At a point late in the film, one character even pulls Max (and essentially the audience) aside to say, “You’re right, everyone else is wrong.”
A more nuanced, knotty movie might be able to get away with this, but Ezra is a divorced-dad fantasy sketched in crayon. And just like Max, the film is convinced it has its title character’s best interests at heart – even if Ezra the movie isn’t much interested in Ezra the character, beyond the kid’s status as a narrative prop.
By the finale – which is capped off by a terribly unfunny cameo that undermines much of the film’s supposed comedy-world bona fides – the whole thing doesn’t so much grind to a halt as it does exhaust itself. The fiercely committed Cannavale, giving his typical all to even the thinnest of roles, seems especially spent. But the good thing about a favour-film like Ezra is that, aside from those who agreed to participate, no one will remember it all that much by the time the next film-festival season rolls around. De Niro and friends: Your secret is safe with me.