A pair of mini-toothbrushes. A set of children’s socks, fresh from the dryer. In the debris field of a failed relationship it is often the smallest things that cause the most pain.
Bradley Cooper clearly believes this, and goes for the smaller-scale option again and again “Is this thing on?” His third feature as a director – a deeply felt film about a crumbling marriage, and a work whose power slowly creeps up on you.
And director Cooper engaged actor Cooper in that strategy, opting to play a secondary role and letting his stars, Will Arnett and Laura Dern, shine. Which they certainly do. It’s rare that a founding relationship is celebrated so naturally, and lacks forced drama or manipulation.
Arnett, who co-wrote the story here, plays Alex Novak, a name that seems to epitomize everyday life. Alex is a suburban New York father who works in finance. His wife Tess is a former Olympic volleyball player who has transitioned from court life to domestic life, raising two 10-year-old sons – the “Irish twins” – and a dog house.
Their marriage ends right at the beginning. “We need to call it quits,” Tess says while brushing her teeth one night. “I think so too,” says Alex, equally intelligently.
Keeping everything cordial, they don’t say anything to their best friends, Balls and Christine when they arrive for a “last hurray” dinner party. In any case, Bowles, an actor with a penchant for small roles, sucks up most of the air in the room, with his abundant facial hair and cheerful awkwardness.
Later, while accompanying Tess on her commuter train back to the suburbs, Alex almost trips over himself – he forgets that he is now living alone in the city. Later wandering the streets, he tries to stop for a drink at a comedy club. But there’s a $15 cover charge and he doesn’t have cash. The only option is to put his name on the open mic list.
It’s a fictional version of the Comedy Cellar, a place Cooper knows well, and where Arnett rehearses material for weeks, Alex has no idea what to do when he steps up to the mic. He just wanted that drink.
“I think I’m getting a divorce,” he says with awkward titters, the camera keeping him in tight profile the entire time. “The thing that told me is that I’m living in an apartment on my own.”
The story is based on the true story of Joseph Bishop, a pharmaceutical representative in Manchester, England, who found himself stuck in standup comedy about 25 years ago — because, yes, he couldn’t nail down a cover charge. Bishop was also going through a breakup and found the standup routine to be a form of therapy.
Alex goes back again and again. Meanwhile, he and Tess are trying to settle down separate lives. Sadness emerges at odd moments. The task of folding clothes for his visiting sons brings Alex to tears. The same happens to Tess when, visiting Alex’s apartment one day, she spies tiny lighted-up children’s toothbrushes in his bathroom.
Alex’s friends and family have varying reactions to the news of her unexpected entry into comedy. His mom, a cheerful Christine Ebersole, has the best reaction: “I didn’t know your life was so bad!”
But Alex persists, as did Bishop in Manchester, when his wife unknowingly walked in and watched his set. And that’s what happens here, when Tess arrives with her date.
Watching Dern’s face here is like watching the seasons slowly change. First, the shock. Then, anger and embarrassment – he’s talking about what it’s like to sleep with a new woman.
And then, a faint smile. After all, Alex is saying that the whole experience made him miss his wife. Later both meet on the road. Tess, still stunned, nevertheless admits that it was “hot” to see him there.
It would be foolish to reveal much more about what happens to the marriage – except perhaps to note that Cooper takes great care to ensure that both partners deserve our sympathy. Maybe that’s why it’s funny, but also poignant, when one scolds another for sleeping with someone else “in front of our arsenal”, which has been retrieved from storage. You understand both sides of it.
Arnett has been thinking about this story for years, and it shows in the subtlety with which he invests in Alex, a loving family man who can’t figure out what went wrong. “I don’t know what happened to my marriage,” he tells a room of strangers, a heartbreaking confession in its mundanity.
And Dern, who won an Oscar as a suave divorce lawyer in “Marriage Story,” projects no such steel here. She’s also not entirely sure what she wants, and when presented with a choice, she can do no better than say: “I’ll think about it.”
However, isn’t that probably how most breakups and make-ups work: In fits and starts, people say things they regret and doubt are what they wanted, anyway? We’ll take it if we see these two actors trying to figure it out.
Searchlight Pictures’ release of “Is This Thing On?” It is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “language throughout, sexual references and some drug use”. Running time: 120 minutes. Three out of four stars.
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