The tumult of spousal separation is barely felt in “Is This Thing On?,” an amiable splitting-up comedy that never cycles too close to the edge. Oiled by privilege and surrounded by support, Alex and Tess Novak (Will Arnett and Laura Dern), suburban New Yorkers, sunder their two-decade union with enviable ease. At times, the movie feels so lightweight and inconsequential that the occasional harsh remark slices like a razor.
So when Alex asks Tess at one point if the story she’s relating to their friends is about him, and she snaps back “No! Somebody alive,” the line is breathtaking. We have seen no fighting, no inciting event in a breakup that’s more “I guess we’re doing this, then?” than door-slamming tantrum. Ever mindful of their two young sons (Calvin Knegten and Blake Kane), the Novaks are exemplars of civility. Almost immediately, Alex — whose job in finance apparently requires no actual work — is settled in an apartment in the city, with room for the boys and a new van to ferry them around. He’s also blessed with genial, endlessly available parents-cum-babysitters (Christine Ebersole and Ciarán Hinds). So far, so frictionless.
But if “Is This Thing On?” is sometimes too careful for its own good, it is also deeply trusting of its leads, whose faces, under the scrutiny of Matthew Libatique’s merciless close-ups, reveal the hurt the couple is unable to verbalize. At least to each other: When Alex wanders onto the stage of a comedy club’s open-mic night and feels the warmth of a welcoming audience, his confessional monologue may be embarrassingly awkward, but it unlocks a need in him that keeps him coming back.
The notion of stand-up as therapy is hardly original, but “Is This Thing On?,” loosely based on the British salesman-turned-comedian John Bishop, doesn’t belabor the psychology of separation. The tone is laid-back and low-stakes, and the club scenes bustle with real comic talent, including Amy Sedaris as a host and stand-ups like Jordan Jensen, Chloe Radcliffe and Reggie Conquest on hand to give Alex advice. Selling Arnett, who’s best known as the wildly insecure magician Gob Bluth on the long-running comedy “Arrested Development,” as a novice funny guy, is a challenge, but the actor is marvelous here, touchingly numb and believably adrift.
Dern, of course, is a boon to any movie, and she gives Tess, a former volleyball star, the wistfulness of a stay-at-home mother who isn’t just mourning her glory days, but resolved to parlay them into a coaching career. Dern has always been able to wordlessly telegraph unsteadily shifting emotions; and when she and a date (a cameo by Peyton Manning) happen upon Alex’s act, the movie simply freezes on her face. (I was reminded here of Nicole Kidman’s incredible close-up in the opera scene in Jonathan Glazer’s 2004 gem, “Birth.”) Moments like this, when strung together, reveal a steel wire of sadness and regret that strums insistently throughout the film, reminding us that the image we carry of our partner might no longer be who they really are.
Bradley Cooper’s third outing as director, “Is This Thing On?” is smaller in scale, looser in technique and more intimately drawn than either “A Star Is Born” (2018) or “Maestro” (2023). The script (by Cooper, Arnett and Mark Chappell) is flimsy, but Cooper surrounds his stars with a vibrant, equally affluent friend group that includes himself as an eccentric, second-rate actor and the wonderful Andra Day as his long-suffering wife.
“I wrote this script faster than I’ve written anything,” Cooper admits in the press notes, and it shows in the movie’s sometimes slapdash characterizations. (Sean Hayes and Scott Icenogle, real-life spouses, appear as no more than background space fillers.) But with a cast this likable and adroit, not even the soundtrack’s heavy-handed harping on Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure” can dispel our good will. Can Tess and Alex be persuaded to listen to Freddie Mercury and give love one more chance?
Is This Thing On? Rated R for sex, drugs and overly literal rock ’n’ roll. Running time: 2 hours 4 minutes. In theaters.
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