Movie Review: Ezra

3 stars out of 5

There’s been a lot of hubbub the past couple of months about Timothée Chalamet being in Hoboken to film the upcoming Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. And yet there’s been zero hubbub about a current major motion picture that is actually set in Hoboken. And that motion picture is called Ezra.

When I saw the trailer for this tale of a cross-country road trip by a father and his autistic son — starring Bobby Canavale as the dad and Robert DeNiro as the granddad — I knew I would see it (those are two of my guys!) and I hoped it would be good. Because there was a decent chance it would not be very good at all.

The director is Tony (Metro) Goldwyn (Mayer), who had no trouble casting name actors. In addition to Cannavale and DeNiro, we have Rose Byrne as Cannavale’s ex-wife, Whoopi Goldberg as his manager, a very likeable Rainn Wilson as his best bud, Vera Farmiga looking uncharacteristically “earth mother” as his long-ago flame, plus a cameo or two. Goldwyn himself plays Byrne’s current beau. And young William A. Fitzgerald, a neurodivergent actor, does a solid job — and importantly, isn’t annoying — as Ezra.

One potential pitfall the filmmakers do avoid: This could’ve been irredeemably sappy, and it isn’t. The early going, with the loving but frustrated parents arguing over the best type of school for Ezra, feels especially real. Unfortunately, much of the movie doesn’t feel very true-to-life, and the writing could’ve been sharper. One glaring example: Cannavale is supposed to be a quality stand-up comedian and former TV writer, yet yet the script doesn’t make him seem very funny.

So, not great, but the movie means well, is watchable enough, and was filmed in New Jersey. And though no scene were actually filmed in Hoboken, my Mile Square pals can take comfort in shots of the hospital, the police station, and the PATH station, and even a mention of the 14th St. Viaduct.