Some films do something to elicit emotions you never thought you’d be able to show in public. Even when you cry or laugh or are angry at a movie, it’s the kind of thing the writers and directors want to get out of you. That’s the case with Ezra. It elicited emotion I hadn’t had in a movie in a while. It’s one of the biggest roller coaster rides I’ve had in recent months regarding my emotional state while watching a film.

Max (Bobby Cannavale) is a stand-up comedian who is going through a divorce with his wife Jenna (Rose Byrne), who is a real estate agent. Together, they have an autistic son named Ezra (William A Fitzgerald). He’s a smart boy, but like any autistic child, he has some issues. Those issues tend to get him into a little trouble at his school and with his parents. Like any good parent, his father wants to stand by him and decides to do something a little rash. He takes him out of Bad one night to embark on a road trip to California, where he has once in a lifetime chance to appear on the Jimmy Kimmel show.

I have friends who have children and a friend who has a nephew who is autistic. The combination of children and autism isn’t an easy one to handle. In the case of Ezra, the boy in this film, he is a little higher on the spectrum. He’s a bit smarter and a little bit more higher functioning than most kids, similar to him. He quotes television shows and movies like he has watched them over and over again. He has a good memory, but he also has some issues that come with his autism. He doesn’t like to have steel in his mouth as in spoons and forks. He doesn’t like to be touched as in hugs or handshakes. It’s just what he and his loved ones have to deal with on a daily basis. This film depicts this boy and his debilitating condition very well indeed. Fitzgerald is amazing as this character. I truly believed everything he did and said in this role.

Bobby Cannavale is a good character actor. He’s done great work in Danny Collins, The Irishman, The Station Agent, and many others. What he’s doing in Ezra might be some of the best work of his career. He had me in tears towards the end of the film when he had a heart-to-heart with his father Stan (Robert DeNiro). They get down to business about being fathers and making mistakes. Together, they realize they love their sons and would do anything to show how much they love them. Including possibly breaking the law. Cannavale and DeNiro worked together in The Irishman, but they are both fantastic opposite one another in this film. Cannavale has come a long way in his career, and this role shows that.

Ezra is a movie that hit me in the feels. It reminded me of myself to some degree. No, I am not autistic, but I have a learning disability. This has caused me to have issues with getting along with people and people not realizing that I genuinely have emotional problems and I have a hard time learning to do things. Having a learning disability is a bit similar to some extent to autism. People want to shun you because you’re different and being different doesn’t make you less than. No one believes you have these issues, they want to make fun of you. I’m here to say just because you’re not like everyone else doesn’t mean they’re better than you. This movie shows that being different, having autism, or in my case a learning disability, just means people should be more understanding and patient. That is the true message this film delivers. It does it in a touching and great way.

Ezra has a surprisingly good cast of actors. Those I’ve mentioned and others I haven’t that play a part in this road trip movie. Tony Goldwyn, who is also the director, plays Byrne’s character’s boyfriend and he doesn’t have the best interests of Ezra at all. Even though he acts like he does. Rainn Wilson plays a camp director in Michigan who is friends with the Cannavale character. He puts the pair up at his camp for a few days while they’re on the run. He is a funny guy and adds a nice respite from the serious themes the film sets up at the beginning.  Vera Farmiga plays another friend of Cannavale’s family and she and her daughter help the father, Max,  and son, Ezra, connect on a greater level than before. Jimmy Kimmel only shows up in the credits. This cast though is fantastic. They all add a nice professionalism to this movie.

Ezra is a fantastic movie directed by Tony Goldwyn, mostly known as a character actor. He finds the emotional tie in Tony Spiridakis’s script. This movie pulled on the heartstrings more than I ever thought it would. Enough so to elicit tears from this tough film critic who has seen it all in terms of films. The tie between the two fathers, played by DeNiro and Cannavale, and their relationships with their sons was the emotional heft this movie was built on. They are both fantastic in their respective roles. Fitzgerald as Ezra was equally fantastic. I believed everything he said and did in this film. His debilitating condition was depicted fantastically by him and the direction by Goldwyn was spot on. This road trip movie is going to be an emotional ride for most people that watch it. It was for me that’s for sure.

4 stars

Dan Skip Allen