Review: 'Jay Kelly' is a surprisingly thoughtful road trip, where George Clooney shows the sad side of being, well, George Clooney

Have you ever wondered how much it would suck to be George Clooney? Me neither, but director Noah Baumbach devotes much time considering that question in a surprisingly moving comedy-drama, “Jay Kelly.”

Clooney plays the title character, a successful movie actor whose life is at its best when he’s on a movie set. For one thing, everyone waits on Jay hand and foot, from the catering folks to the makeup artist, Candy (played by Emily Mortimer, who co-wrote the script with Baumbach). For another, after a take, he can ask the director, “Can we do it again?” — a request which is as much about his acting quirks as it is a way to delay having to face the real world.

In that real world, Jay has two daughters: Jessica (Riley Keough), 34, a schoolteacher somewhat estranged from him; and Daisy (Grace Edwards), 18, and about to venture to Europe with friends before going to college. He’s mourning the death of his mentor, Peter (Jim Broadbent). And he bumps into a former friend from acting school, Timothy (Billy Crudup), who still harbors a grudge over an audition that changed their fates.

Jay’s closest relationship is with his manager, Ron Sukenick (Adam Sandler), who moves heaven and earth to satisfy his client’s wishes and whims. So when Jay suddenly declares he’s going to Europe — ostensibly to accept a film festival tribute Ron already turned down for him, but really to stalk Daisy in a fatherly way — Ron has to gather up Jay’s entourage, including Candy and eternally frustrated publicist Liz (Laura Dern), and hop on Jay’s private plane, first to Paris and later to Tuscany.

Traveling through Tuscany, in particular, allows Baumbach to indulge his inner Fellini, as he puts Clooney in fantasy flashback scenes reminiscent of Marcello Mastroiani’s musings in “8 1/2.” The trip also sets Ron thinking about what he’s missed in his life because he constantly puts Jay’s needs ahead of his own.

Sandler gives perhaps his best performance since “Punch-Drunk Love,” a melancholy consideration of roads not taken that prove what the comedian can do when he actually puts in an effort. But Baumbach’s film is really Clooney’s, as he ponders whether global acclaim and uncounted riches was worth the family sacrifices he made to achieve them — and whether, like with his movies, he can get one more take to get it right.

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‘Jay Kelly’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, November 21, in theaters; starts streaming December 5 on Netflix. Rated R for language. Running time: 132 minutes.