Ezra

We've seen many films about an individual's affliction, whether it be based on a true story or pure fiction, and it can be an adult or a child, but through the film, the 'healthiest' one in the film is usually the one afflicted. Such is the case of "Ezra", about an autistic boy where his family definitely puts the 'D' in dysfunction. 

Stand-up comedian Max Bernal (Bobby Cannavale) struggles to co-parent with his ex-wife Jenna (Rose Byrne) to raise their autistic son, Ezra (William A. Fitzgerald). Forced to confront difficult decisions about the boy's future, Max and Ezra embark on a cross-country road trip that has a transcendent impact on both of their lives. Through the trek, Max has constant contact with his dad, Stan (Robert De Niro) about what difficulties he's having, whereas Stan tries to convince his son to give himself up after Max has been charged with kidnapping Ezra even though Max is his dad. From there all hell breaks loose. 

Others to round out the cast are Vera Farmiga as Grace, Whoopi Goldberg as Jayne, Max's manager, Rainn Wilson as Nick, Tony Goldwyn as Bruce, Geoffrey Owens as Robert Segal and Alex Plank as Dr. Kaplan. 

Considering his extensive experience as an actor, this was effectively directed by Tony Goldwyn ("A Walk on the Moon" '99, "Someone Like You" '01, "The Last Kiss" '06, "Alibi" (TV movie) '07, "Conviction" '10, "Philly Lawyer" (TV movie) '12) plus TV and a short. Like with other actors that have crossed over to the directing realm, Goldwyn has done the same, and has done so with relative ease. Maybe because he is an actor so as to realize what it takes to direct with effectiveness--not sure, but others such as Clint Eastwood, Bradley Cooper, George Clooney, John Krasinski and the like have made that change and have succeeded with aplomb. It was executed well by writer Tony Spiridakis ("Queens Logic" '91, "The Last Word" '95, "If Lucy Fell" (story) '96, "Dante and the Debudante" '96, "Tinseltown" '97, "Driving to Ground Zero" '02, "Ash Wednesday" '03) plus TV and shorts. The premise of this film was certainly meaty and contained an abundance of interesting fodder in which to extract from, however as the film started, it took way too long for them to give us that film they were attempting to give us. There was a bit of meandering and choppiness, but after approximately a third of the film, it slowly started to pick up ultimately became the film that I was certainly looking for. This writer is fairly seasoned, but I'm not sure what happened--bad day at the laptop? Cannavale as Max was simply perfect playing the dysfunctional dad to Ezra and could possibly receive an Oscar nod at that time. 

If you like films about the trials and tribulations of chronic diseases and the reactions and ramifications of them, this is the film for you. If you see this, it will be for the desperate, loving, dysfunctional character of Max that Bobby Cannavale pulls off in spades. It was riveting, as was Fitzgerald as Ezra being the autistic.

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                                      Rated: R                                        101mins.