Mediocre drama wastes Cannavale, De Niro pairing
Robert De Niro and Bobby Cannavale have acted together once before, in Martin Scorsese’s 2019 mob drama The Irishman. But casting them as father and son is a brilliant idea, and, if nothing else, actor/director Tony Goldwyn’s new film Ezra at least offers audiences that long overdue delight.
Without De Niro and Cannavale’s terrific chemistry, Ezra would be a middling, forgettable drama. But De Niro and Cannavale’s scenes help elevate the picture from merely rote to serviceable. While predictable and cliche, the drama may win over viewers with a soft spot for earnest, heartwarming tales of families overcoming adversity.
Cannavale stars as Max, an up-and-coming stand up comic, who, we are told, is funny enough to be courted by Jimmy Kimmel’s booking agent. But in a classic case of telling over showing, what we witness of Max’s stand up sets are some of the most patently unfunny comedy routines since “comedian” Che Diaz made audiences cringe on As Just Like That.
But okay, fine: let’s suspend disbelief and roll with the fact that Max is apparently talented enough to get a spot on Kimmel. Accepting that as a given is necessary, since, for plot purposes, that explains why Max needs to get himself from his New Jersey home to L.A., pronto. The only hitch to that move, in writer Tony Spiridakis’s paint-by-numbers script, is that Max’s autistic son, the titular Ezra, is supposed to be sent to a special needs school because of an incident that authorities feel threatened his safety, and Max wants to “save” him from that fate. Why Max is so opposed to what actually seems like a great option for Ezra is a little fuzzy, but the plot needs to be triggered. Thus a father-son road trip is set in motion, complicated by the fact that technically Max, who has a hot-head temper, has actually kidnapped Ezra from the home of Max’s ex-wife Jenna (Rose Byrne, wasted in a worried mother role).
All of these machinations are just an excuse for Max and Ezra to bond and have cross country adventures while visiting quirky characters along the way. Rainn Wilson brings some wry comic relief as Max’s old friend Nick, and Vera Farmiga plays Grace, an exceedingly kind family friend.
While Cannavale and De Niro are believable and even likable together, without De Niro as a scene partner, Cannavale chews the scenery by overemphasizing Max’s anger issues to a ridiculous degree. Even in Max’s more tender moments with Ezra, we worry Max’s temper may push through. But the tropes of the fiercely protective, misguided but loving father always prevail, and we’re left with a picture with an ending you’ll have guessed from the first five minutes of screen time.
Young William A. Fitzgerald, an actor who actually is on the spectrum, is a find, though, and his portrayal of Ezra will no doubt go a long way towards creating audience understanding and empathy for both kids and parents dealing with autism. That might be the most valuable outcome of this otherwise unexceptional family drama.
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Ezra opens today in Bay Area theaters.
