Review: About Alex

Former college pals reunite for the weekend when one of their own has attempted suicide. Coming to the home of Alex (Jason Ritter), who has just gotten out of the hospital, failed writer Ben (Nate Parker) even notices that the ‘mess’ in the bathroom hasn’t been cleaned up yet. Ben is still with college sweetheart Siri (Maggie Grace- Fuck You, Shannon. I’m still pissed!), though neither have seen Alex in years. In fact, none of the gang have really kept in touch, despite some not living terribly far away. Max Greenfield plays Josh, a confrontational douchebag who has a knack for saying all of the wrong things, and refuses to show sympathy over his old friend’s near-death experience. Aubrey Plaza is Sarah, Josh’s former ‘fuck buddy’, who takes the opposite tact towards Alex and, well-meaning as she is, won’t leave the poor guy alone as she pretty much plays mother to him. She also starts fucking Josh again, against her better judgement, despite harbouring long-held romantic feelings for someone else. Max Minghella rounds out the group as successful businessman Isaac, who turns up with his supposedly younger girlfriend (Jane Levy), who works for a suicide hotline. Over the course of the weekend, secrets are revealed, anger and resentment unleashed, beds are hopped, and uncomfortable truths are told as eventually it’s time to talk about Alex.

 

The basic plot is “The Big Chill”. The title character is the same name as a character from “The Big Chill”, but given a slightly different fate here. There’s a substitute for the Meg Tilly character from “The Big Chill” here, too. A character pretentiously references “The Big Chill” without directly naming it. Other characters re-enact the dinnertime ‘dancing to the oldies’ scene from “The Big Chill” with only minor difference. At one point, a dog is jokingly named ‘Jeff Goldblum’, who was an actor from “The Big Chill”. However, I’m sure debut writer-director Jesse Zwick (son of director Edward, who directed “Glory” and “The Last Samurai”) will claim that he has ultimately put his own generation’s spin on “The Big Chill” with this 2015 film, so that it’s ultimately not a rip-off of “The Big Chill”. Sadly, he’d either be wrong or lying, because this absolutely is a rip-off of “The Big Chill” (which, John Sayles fans will tell you, wasn’t terribly original to begin with) and just kind of a rip-off in general. And that’s a shame, because if the film focussed more on its one big difference: The sad, affecting character of Alex and everyone’s discomfort around him, and created a wholly original film around that, we might’ve had something here. “The Big Chill”, due to Alex being dead as the film starts, didn’t really focus on this element quite as much. Instead of taking this interesting idea, though, Zwick surrounds the suicide attempt material with…a lesser version of “The Big Chill”.

 

Jason Ritter is actually terrific here as the troubled and clearly very fragile Alex. If there’s a reason to see the film (and there’s really not) it’s him, as the actor seems to get this character on a pretty scary level. He looks haunted, barely holding it together, and still in a lot of turmoil, at least early in the film. I had no idea Ritter had these kind of acting chops, to be honest, though those who have followed his career closer may be less surprised. Aubrey Plaza, meanwhile, at least shows that she can handle not only drama roles, but roles that move away from her eye-rolling deadpan snark persona. She’s good at that sort of thing, but she shows she can be pretty good outside of that too. In a blend of the Jeff Goldblum and William Hurt roles from “The Big Chill”, Max Greenfield’s turn is less of a stretch from his “New Girl” TV persona, but he’s easily the comic highlight of the film nonetheless. The guy is a giant douchebag and seemingly unfazed, Greenfield’s in top form here as an agitating prick. He gets the biggest laugh in the film when making a crack about Maggie Grace’s character’s name. The interesting thing about Greenfield’s Josh is that he might just have the most relatable personal crisis/situation: He’s an academic who hasn’t really seemed to progress at all. Many will relate to that. 

I was less interested in Max Minghella supposedly shockingly dating a younger woman in Jane Levy, who is unknown to the rest of the group (somewhat similar to Meg Tilly in “The Big Chill”). In addition to Minghella’s flat performance, the problem is that actor Max Minghella is 31 years of age, his love interest Jane Levy is 26 playing 22, and Aubrey Plaza is 32…but all three look of similar age (30ish), and are of similar age to each other. At the very least, Levy hardly looks like a frigging teenager, so I have no idea why it’s such a big deal that someone in their early 30s is dating someone in their mid-to-late 20s. In “The Big Chill”, the age gap between Tilly and the other characters/actors seemed a lot bigger (though the point was more that she was an outsider to the group), whereas here it’s just confusing or at the very least no big deal. It gets more confusing, though. I’m almost certain at one point Max Greenfield’s character makes reference to his being 37 years-old, yet later on Plaza talks about ‘making a pact for when they’re 35’! What the hell? Either I’m hallucinating, or continuity is horrendously sloppy at some points here. Even if they’re meant to be in their early 30s, why would you make a pact for…a couple of years later? Even then it doesn’t make any damn sense. To be frank, I never bought all of these characters/actors (minus Levy, of course) being the same age as one another. I already knew the controversial Nate Parker was born the year before me, and Plaza is a few years younger than me. Max Greenfield is my age (36) and Maggie Grace is a very young-looking 33. In other films where characters are meant to be the same age (or at worst, a year apart) it’s not as distracting, but here I couldn’t get past it, though at least Aubrey Plaza and Jason Ritter (who is also 36) manage to have a nice chemistry on-screen.

The examination of characters’ reactions to an attempted suicide of a friend (and his attempt at dealing with surviving it and moving on) is not an uninteresting idea for a film. There’s even some merit and room for a Gen X/Y version of “The Big Chill”, but writer-director Zwick goes too far in reverence and pretty much gives us a rip-off of “The Big Chill”. Meanwhile, some of the cast (Ritter, Greenfield, Plaza) fare better than others (Minghella, Parker, Levy). It’s disappointingly unoriginal, as there was potential here. I’m afraid I’m going to have to rate this one a bit harshly for that.

 

Rating: C