AILSA CHANG, HOST:
A movie celebrity realizes late in life that he got so wrapped up in his career, he neglected his daughters. Critic Bob Mondello says that's the story in not one but two new movies, the European drama, "Sentimental Value," and the Hollywood comedy, "Jay Kelly."
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: Jay Kelly is a movie star...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "JAY KELLY")
ADAM SANDLER: (As Ron) And action.
(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL'S "JAY KELLY THEME - QUINTET")
MONDELLO: ...Handsome, affable, debonair, 60-something. Think George Clooney - same consonant sounds, even - Jay Kelly, George Clooney - good fit.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) What do you say to people who say you only play yourself?
MONDELLO: I mean, he's not actually playing himself.
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GEORGE CLOONEY: (As Jay Kelly) You know how difficult it is to be yourself?
MONDELLO: But it helps Noah Baumbach's midlife crisis dramedy if you sort of go along with the notion Kelly is a bit of an empty vessel...
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CLOONEY: (As Jay Kelly) I'm just an actor that got famous.
MONDELLO: ...Who's reached a point where he's doubting his life choices - his marriage long gone, his older daughter completely estranged, his younger one...
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GRACE EDWARDS: (As Daisy Kelly) I'm leaving on Saturday for Paris.
CLOONEY: (As Jay Kelly) This is your last summer. It'll be so lonely here without you.
EDWARDS: (As Daisy Kelly) No, it won't. You're never alone.
CLOONEY: (As Jay Kelly) Really? I think I'm always alone.
MONDELLO: An aids hands him his coffee.
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CLOONEY: (As Jay Kelly) Thanks, a lot (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As assistant) You're welcome.
MONDELLO: That's a joke but, sure, a guy who pays his best pals, manager Adam Sandler and publicist Laura Dern, might well feel something's missing. Could he find it in an impromptu trip to Europe - his horrified handlers forced to book train tickets so he can seem to bump into his daughter.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character, speaking non-English language).
(APPLAUSE)
MONDELLO: It at least lets him play to the crowd.
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SANDLER: (As Ron) People are so nice.
CLOONEY: (As Jay Kelly) By the way, these are the best peanuts I've ever had. Try one of them.
SANDLER: (As Ron) It's a good peanut, a European peanut.
CLOONEY: (As Jay Kelly) I didn't offer you one because I know about your allergies.
LAURA DERN: (As Liz) That's right. My throat will close, and I will die.
CLOONEY: (As Jay Kelly) How can I play people when I don't see people, touch people.
DERN: (As Liz) Don't touch people.
MONDELLO: Quips and Clooney's magnetism go a decent way to making all this loneliness of stardom fetching palatable. And Sandler's a sharp antidote when he's on screen. But "Jay Kelly's" not nearly as affecting about the alleged heartbreak of success as, say, "Lost In Translation" or Fellini's "8.5."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "JAY KELLY")
CLOONEY: (As Jay Kelly) Everything you thought you were isn't true.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) And cut.
CLOONEY: (As Jay Kelly) Can we go again?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) Really?
CLOONEY: (As Jay Kelly) I'd like another one.
MONDELLO: I'm not sure that would help. What's wrong with "Jay Kelly" is quickly put right in Joachim Trier's "Sentimental Value."
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STELLAN SKARSGARD: (As Gustav Borg) You working on anything new?
ELLE FANNING: (As Rachel Kemp) Something like that.
MONDELLO: In this one, Stellan Skarsgard plays Gustav, a film director. His neglected daughters, Nora and Agnes, are a few years older, and their estrangement's not played for laughs because it's not funny. When Nora says you don't know us...
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RENATE REINSVE: (As Nora Borg, speaking non-English language).
MONDELLO: Her father's response is a bemused...
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SKARSGARD: (As Gustav Borg, speaking non-English language).
MONDELLO: ...Everyone's mad at Dad, eh? In fairness, there's a reason. Gustav has shown up at the funeral for their mom, not to mourn the ex-wife he left long ago, but with a screenplay he's written for Nora, who's an accomplished stage actress, no thanks to him. He's set the screenplay in the house they grew up in and made it about their own family's trauma going back generations. Nora angrily turns him down. At which point, he casts a visiting American star, played by Elle Fanning, who, of course, gets in touch with Nora.
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ELLE FANNING: (As Rachel Kemp) Why didn't you want to do the role?
REINSVE: (As Nora Borg) I can't work with him. We can't really talk. My father is a very difficult person.
MONDELLO: The filmmaker's focus, you'll notice, is on the daughter, not on dad. So even though Skarsgard's director is thinking only of himself, "Sentimental Value" doesn't feel like insider navel-gazing. Trier anchors the film in an ornate Victorian home where the dynamics are fraught, the performances, especially Renata Reinsve's Nora, as understated as they are heartbreaking. And the plot, which keeps you guessing up to the final moments of the final scene, is riveting. Unlike "Jay Kelly," no need for a retake. I'm Bob Mondello.
(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL'S "JAY KELLY THEME - QUINTET") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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