Is This Thing On? review: all-star cast but no all-star result

Midlife crises come in all shapes and sizes. For down-on-his-luck New Yorker Alex, played by Arrested Development star and BoJack Horseman vocal talent Will Arnett, hitting rock bottom manifests in a spot of accidental stand-up comedy in good mate Bradley Cooper’s new movie, Is This Thing On?

You see, all Alex wanted was another drink. But the only way past a jobsworth security dude and into the nearest pub was to sign up for their open mic night. So that’s precisely what he does.

Thus begins an impromptu therapy session, as Alex spills his guts to a room full of strangers, encouraged by Kemp (Amy Sedaris). Acknowledging that he should have seen his divorce coming when he wound up in a barely furnished apartment minus the wife and kids, the crowd’s unexpected guffaws ease his bruised ego.

From joke to comedy act

Tess, Alex’s soon-to-be-ex-wife, depicted by David Lynch’s inspiration, Laura Dern, is a former Olympic volleyball player-turned-coach who does not hate his guts. Indeed, they just chomped a weed cookie on the train home from dinner at their eccentric best mates, Christine (Andra Day) and, err, Balls, an out-of-work and exceedingly ditzy actor played by Cooper.

Instead, like so many couples before them, Tess and Alex just got a little too used to one another and stopped actively listening. Tess reckons Alex wasn’t there for her when she gave up her career to have their boys via a difficult IVF process. Exactly what Alex did to pay the bills is a bit vague in a film with a few too many fuzzy edges, but he wears a slick suit.

But just as they’ve come to the begrudgingly mutual decision it’s best to go their separate ways, Tess is rejuvenated at being back in the sport she loves and Alex’s confidence is boosted by his newfound comedy family, rounded out by real-life funny folk Jordan Jensen, Chloe Radcliffe and Reggie Conquest.

When he ditches the suit for a leather jacket and cigarettes, things get complicated.

Watch the Is This Thing On? trailer

Is this thing funny?

Arnett, co-writing with his director, Cooper, and Mark Chappell, was inspired by an aside from real-life British stand-up John Bishop about signing up for the gig in a similar fashion. Arnett’s well-worn charm certainly suits Alex, a likeable guy who’s just a little bit clueless, and there’s real chemistry between him and Dern. But there’s a touch of the ever-diminishing And Just Like That effect here.

Much as legit comedian Sara Ramirez was poorly served by the half-baked stand-up written for her character Chez Diaz in the Sex and the City sequel series, fellow comic Arnett isn’t entirely convincing as a semi-competent stand-up guy.

It works for a bit but after a while, his shtick gets stiff.

Unlike Ramirez, who is on record insisting she didn’t write her fictional character’s bits, Arnett only has himself (and Cooper and Chappell) to blame.

It’s not a deal breaker, but the comedy club stuff takes up a lot of room, and these scenes don’t snap as much as they should. Barring one deliberately cringey coincidence, when Tess turns up on a date with another dude (ex-quarterback Peyton Manning, in more meta casting as a former player-turned-coach).

The slackness kinda works, though, in a handsomely scuzzy-looking film a little too intimately lensed by Requiem for a Dream cinematographer Matthew Libatique. Dern, a living legend, and Arnett amiably convince as folks who just need a bit of space to figure out how well they fit together.

Third time’s the charm?

Cooper’s chaotic presence as Balls is a bit much, while his film is the exact inverse. After the uninspired decision to rework A Star is Born for the 892nd time as his overwrought directorial debut, Cooper’s sophomore offering, the Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, was a good deal more interesting.

Even if it was overly fussy, Maestro showed genuine promise in Cooper’s willingness to play with every tool in the box – not unlike Kristen Stewart’s debut, The Chronology of Water.

Is This Thing On? falls somewhere in the middle. An enjoyable enough character study, it coasts along on the near-unrivalled strength of Dern, with Arnett just about keeping up. The United States vs Billie Holiday star Andra Day brings much-needed energy in the form of cranky Christine, as her frustration at Balls’ space cadet energy mirrors Tess and Alex’s slow implosion. Ciarán Hinds, on the other hand, is entirely wasted in a generic dad role.

With these agreeable enough pieces lined up, Cooper’s third directorial turn loses its way a little. Winding towards a very predictable and unnecessarily sappy conclusion via a needle drop that probably should be retired after peaking in Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun, Is This Thing On? is a little bit too neat.

Is This Thing On? releases in cinemas on 5 February.

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