Two Bob each way is the sure bet for EZRA.
Two Bobs – Bobby Cannavale and Robert De Niro- headline this splendid story of a family dealing with an autistic boy.
Ezra is a sharp, charismatic 11-year-old whose autism diagnosis is a much bigger deal for his parents than it is for him. Sure, he always says precisely what he’s thinking, which seems to wreak near-constant havoc at school and elsewhere. But he also knows exactly what he needs to feel safe.
Presently, he is living with his mum, Jenna, with dad, Max, enjoying access rights which include taking him to comedy clubs where he is appearing.
Max worries that Ezra isn’t being treated equally, from pigeon holing teachers and pill pushing doctors. When Max’s anxieties mount, Max does what comes naturally to him—makes life even more complicated.
In the middle of the night, Max hastily scrambles up his ex’s fire escape and bundles a bleary-eyed Ezra into the car for a cross country drive for a shot at a slot on the Jimmy Kimmel show.
Max is garrulous and fun, but also impulsive and prone to rash decisions, and together with Ezra’s propensity for the unfiltered turn of phrase and antic, the coast to coast trek careers from disaster to discovery and back again,
EZRA plays like Midnight Run – the casting of De Niro as Max’s father, Stan, adding to that allusion – and is as wildly entertaining.
Bobby Cannavale is superb as the acerbic stand-up and flummoxed father, Max.
New discovery William Fitzgerald is blisteringly good, taking on an underrepresented character with deep authenticity as Ezra. His unshackled, unfiltered performance is funny, fierce and forthright, a genuine charmer.
Along with Fitzgerald, Cannavale and De Niro, Rose Byrne shines as Jenna.
EZRA is penned by Tony Spiridakis and directed by Tony Goldwyn. It is an eminently entertaining movie, with plot and dialogue that’s sharp and witty, with one segment that comes perilously close to schmaltz but is saved by the overall strengths of the writing and cast.
