Illustration by Kristian Hammerstad
Upbeat, feel-good divorce movies are a rare thing. Kramer vs Kramer, Marriage Story, most recently the terrible re-make of The War of the Roses – all concur that divorce is a downer. Is This Thing On?, the third film directed by Bradley Cooper, in succession to A Star Is Born and Maestro, contrives to take a more optimistic view of separation.
We meet Alex (Will Arnett, the gravelly voice of Bojack Horseman, in his first lead role in a feature) and Tess (Laura Dern), as they amicably agree that, after 26 years together, it’s time for them to part. Chatting outside the bedroom of their two ten-year-old boys, Tess, brushing her teeth, says: “I think we need to call it, right?” “I think so too,” Alex agrees.
And that’s it for the backstory. They’re not angry at all. In the next scene, the couple go together for an evening with their old friends, Balls (yes, Balls), an absurdly dedicated but unsuccessful actor (Bradley Cooper clowning around in different facial hair every time he appears) and his acerbic, discontented wife, Christine (Andra Day). Only when Alex and Tess head in different directions from a Grand Central platform, after sharing a tasty hash cookie, do we realise they’re already living apart.
Slightly high, Alex wanders up to the Olive Tree Café in Greenwich Village for a drink. There’s a $15 cover charge, unless he puts his name down to do stand-up in the famous Comedy Cellar beneath. He does and suddenly finds himself on stage, completely unprepared. “I don’t have a ton of jokes,” he mutters, before launching into what’s on his mind. “I think I’m getting a divorce – what tipped me off is I’m living in an apartment on my own.” There’s a ripple of laughter and on he goes with full confession, in the way of stand-up as it is now practised, letting it all hang out for therapy on the cheap as well as laughs.
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Is This Thing On? is based on the often-told true story of how the Liverpudlian comedian John Bishop found his calling. A pharmaceutical rep and former footballer, he had split with his wife, Melanie, after eight years and three kids; he too had ended up on stage, in front of an audience of seven, after baulking at paying the £4 entrance fee at an open-mic night at the Frog and Bucket club in Manchester. It went well, he went back. In the final stages of divorce, Melanie was by chance in the audience on a work outing, listening to him saying how much he missed her (so much so that he kept her head in the fridge, he professed). They were reconciled and are still together to this day.
Is This Thing On? revolves entirely around this anecdote, expanding upon it illustratively. Alex, who works in finance, we’re told without any further reference, discovers happiness and a sense of purpose in the comedy world, even managing a one-night stand with a fellow performer (Jordan Jensen, a real comedian, like the others appearing). At his next gig, he’s relating this – after 20 years of marriage, sex with somebody else is like staying in an Airbnb: everything’s a bit different from what you are used to, the spoons in different drawers – when Tess turns up in the audience, on her own first date, with an annoying sports jock (former quarterback Peyton Manning). She’s shocked and aroused. After spending the night together, Alex and Tess get back together with all the deliciousness of an illicit affair, pretending to friends and their kids they’re still separated until they’re sure.
There’s lots to discuss but they’re agreed. “I was unhappy in our marriage, I wasn’t unhappy with our marriage,” one says. Let’s be unhappy together, they chorus. The movie ends with a joyous school concert, their boys in a band belting out “Under Pressure”, everybody dancing.
It may just be the first comedy of remarriage since the genre was devised as a way of getting around the Hays Code ban on depicting adultery in the 1930s. Filmed close-up with a reeling handheld camera often operated by Cooper himself, it was made in just 33 days and comes across as a real ensemble piece, improvised in feel if not fact – an actor’s movie. Laura Dern and Will Arnett, whose deep voice is so charismatic as to be a superpower, are both excellent. Yet it’s also an actor’s movie in the sense that, like Cooper’s previous films, it asserts that performance is what matters most: it is the answer to life’s big questions, the key to relationships. His disappointment over not making this year’s Oscar nominations – he’s been shortlisted 12 times without winning – must be rivalled only by Trump’s over the Nobel.
“Is This Thing On?” is out on 30 January
[Further reading: What it’s like to be played by Claire Foy]
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