When you live your dream and your life on the big screen, there may be some things that get lost along the way. In Jay Kelly, the new moving coming to Netflix this weekend we meet a Hollywood A lister – Jay Kelly (George Clooney) who is still at the top of his game. When his youngest daughter wants to spend her last weeks before heading to college with friends, Kelly decides to accept a lifetime achievement award he previously had turned down, just so he can make an attempt to get some time with her before she’s gone. What he finds, instead is his daughter has lived her whole life without him being available and isn’t concerned with his sudden interest in her life.
Jay Kelly brings with it an interesting look at a career of Kelly – or really Clooney when you look at it. They do recreate some of his roles through flashbacks, but when Kelly is presented his award, the footage on the screen is actually different roles that Clooney portrayed. From favorite moments that we all have watched for decades, and some that no doubt were bringing up memories for the actor as he watched. The movie seems deeply personal for him, and the story seems to mirror parts of his own life. Something that the director Noah Baumbach is known for doing. It makes you stop, pause and wonder what else you may have given up in the journey for your own dreams.
While the concept of the movie is interesting overall, a successful man who not only wants the career but wants to go back and recapture what he may have neglected along the way, the story has a lot more layers to it. Not only does it highlight how relationship dynamics are different on both sides of Kelly’s life, from work to his assistant’s involvement. It also shows what others around him had to give up just so that he could have the life and career that he wanted. His success isn’t his own, but it isn’t until this trip that he starts to see the contributions and sacrifices that everyone else has made for him.
It’s an endearing movie, and one that makes you think. Add in a cast of actors that are all great in their own rights, and scenic locations – Jay Kelly is a movie that you can easily sit down and enjoy, but will come back to just to think it over again. Jay Kelly will be streaming on Netflix this Friday.
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About Jay Kelly
JAY KELLY, the new film from Academy Award nominee Noah Baumbach, follows famous movie actor, Jay Kelly (George Clooney), as he embarks on a journey of self discovery confronting both his past and present, accompanied by his devoted manager Ron (Adam Sandler). Poignant and humor filled, epic and intimate, JAY KELLY is pitched at the intersection of life’s regrets and notable glories.