Is This Thing On? Movie Review

Cast: Will Arnett, Laura Dern, Bradley Cooper, Andra Day
Director: Bradley Cooper

Based on UK comedian John Bishop's life, Is This Thing On?'s commitment to a grounded story (for the most part) proves to be its success.

Will Arnett and Laura Dern play Alex and Tess Novak, who we first meet as they're in the throes of deciding to split. Having the debate on the landing of their house, trying to not wake their children, it all seems amicable, a banal chat before they head to a friends' do and pretend like nothing is happening.

But on the way home, having taken a hash cookie between them, Alex decides to go to a bar - and rather than pay the $15 cover charge, he signs up to take the stage at a bar at an open mic comedy night.

With no material at hand, he simply begins to recount his split - and the audience reaction and laughter spurs something deep within him, compelling him to embrace the possibilities of doing stand-up.

Meanwhile, Tess, a former volleyball champion, rediscovers her desire to become a coach of the sport once again, as the pair of them try to negotiate life after marriage but before any kind of divorce.

There's a compelling veracity to Is This Thing On?'s story.

While director and actor Bradley Cooper over-deploys shaky cam tactics and an in-your-face approach to filming with some extreme close-ups, it's largely helped by how amiable the leads are.

From Arnett's gravelly countenance through to Dern's grounded performance, the film seizes on both the minutiae and the realities of separation and life as a middle-aged couple when it all falls apart. Perhaps the film sails a little too close to the midlife crisis angle in parts and feels in others like it's verging on Marriage Story, but it never once loses sight of what makes it seem all too familiar to anyone in relationships.

Ironically, the weakest part of the film is Cooper's own character, a shambling, jobbing actor and long-term friend of Alex's, who's played for comic relief and doesn't quite feel like he fits in. His relationship with Andra Day's Christine though is the antithesis of what Alex and Tess appear to feel - their's is a marriage that appears to teeter on seething bitterness, rather than goign their separare ways. It's an interesting antithesis, and one that doesn't quite work in a key moment where it needs to.

But above all, this dissection of two people who are unhappy in a marriage rather than unhappy with their marriage thrives on its subtle truths. It's no wonder it's inspired by a true story, because large moments feel lived-in and universally recognisable.

Working better by concentrating on the plight faced by both, rather than pointless exposition of how they got to that point, Is This Thing On?'s three-dimensional approach serves the film exceptionally well and both Dern and Arnett make it more than worth your while to go along for the ride.