Divorced stand-up comedian Max Bernal struggles to raise his autistic son, Ezra. 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.
Ezra is directed by Tony Goldwyn who previously directed Conviction (2010).
Credit where credit is due they casted William Fitzgerald who actually is autistic to play an autistic character which does end up making the film a bit more grounded and can connect more with the viewer as well.
The performances are quite solid, William Fitzgerald is a lot of fun and delivers some quite humorous lines plus is overall incredibly charming as well. Although his character Ezra is admittedly used as a plot device to move things a long in the later half of the movie, which is quite unfortunate and does end up hurting the movie in the long run. Bobby Cannavale and Robert De Niro are both solid here as well, Cannavale has lot of moments where his character Max bonds with his son and those moments do end up being charming. De Niro as usual delivers a great performance that is quite raw, it's not heavy performance that has a lot to it but it works in the context of the movie.
The writing is decent, there's definitely some inspiration porn cliches thrown in there but it isn't nearly enough to really take away from the movie. Although the subplot of Max landing a spot on Jimmy Kimmel is very out of place for a movie like this, it ended up feeling like a setup for a mid-credits joke which doesn't work (the joke itself is not even worth it). Having that said I do think the performances truly make this film and really make the script come together. There's this earnest feel to the performances that's present throughout the movie you can't help but love and that ends up being the case with the script as well.
Overall Ezra is a perfectly passable drama that I'm glad exists, although it's heavily flawed I do appreciate the careful attempt by everyone involved!
Ezra is available on all VOD platforms.
6/10 C+
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