Is This Thing On?

Laura Dern, Will Arnett and Calvin Knegten in “Is This Thing On?”Jason McDonald/Searchlight Pictures photo via IMDb.com

Laura Dern won an Oscar for playing the divorce attorney in “Marriage Story.”

Now, in “Is This Thing On?” she's the one getting the divorce.

Hmmm, did she miss something … ?

Her character Tess Novak, a former volleyball champion, takes the breakup in stride. Between her young sons, the dogs, her homey home and a possible new career coaching, there's not much room for depression.

Her husband Alex (Will Arnett) handles it a little differently. He accidentally wanders into a comedy club one open-mic night, and before you can say, “Is this thing on?” he's doing stand-up comedy about the divorce and the sorry state of his life in general.

Unlikely as it may sound, this is all based on true events. At least that's what it says in the end titles, right after the director's credit for Bradley Cooper. Cooper also costars as the goofball husband of Andra Day, the Novaks' closest couple friends, both of whom eye Tess and Alex's divorce with sympathy, support and jealousy they can barely conceal.

The divorce isn't the end of Alex and Tess's relationship. Just the opposite, actually. Being apart brings them together in surprising ways. So does Alex's new career. The more he shares with total strangers, the more embarrassing the details, the hotter he gets.

Director Cooper shoots Arnett's stand-up routines in tight close-ups, and the actor's face – as expressive as your devoted dog's – is as effective as his words at conveying the complex emotions he's trying to play for laughs. Still, when he says, “I thought this was supposed to be comedy,” in an awkward moment on-stage, he's got a point.

Stand-up comedy is among the strangest of the performing arts, walking a tightrope between hilarity and pathos. Turning your neuroses and insecurities into amusement for others isn't for weaklings or cowards. What's funny about any of it is the eternal mystery … or, if you prefer, misery.

Billed as both a comedy and a drama, the two elements never quite congeal into the hybrid known as dramedy. The funny part is that most of the funny parts don't happen at the mike. Alex's material comes from the “hey, this is cheaper than therapy” tradition, and there are a lot of words, and dead space, and “uhs …” between the laughs.

But at other moments you find yourself smiling unexpectedly. These come in interactions with their preteen sons Felix and Jude (Blake Kane and Calvin Knegten), or Alex's parents (Ciarån Hinds and Christine Ebersole). Funny folks like Sean Hayes, Amy Sedaris and Payton Manning have little roles to play, and director Bradley Cooper is pretty out there as a guy called Balls.

But most of the smiles come from the stars. Arnett and Dern have wonderful chemistry together, loving or fighting or discovering a whole lot of states in between. Arnett's Alex is a good guy in spite of himself, always trying to do the right thing if he could only figure out what that was.

And paired with her scene-stealing role in “Jay Kelly,” Dern is a double threat this awards season. How much of Tess's likability belongs to the character, and how much is just Laura Dern doesn't matter. She brings a lot of sunshine whenever she's onscreen.

The opportunity to spend time with Tess and Alex makes “Is This Thing On?” worth seeing.

You only wish they had a better story to be in.