Dr Doug goes to France

Incredibly so, many American actors have trooped out of Trump’s America for greener pastures. What is as unbelievable is that all of them have settled in Europe. George Clooney too with his wife, Amal, and seven-year-old twins. The star, a vocal critic of President Trump, said he would rather not let the juniors grow up in a country so vitiated as it now is. For several months, the Clooneys have been planning to shift to France. And finally they have done it.

America would certainly miss him, and he is a delight to watch on screen, with some of his movie outings being terrific. He shot to fame after playing Dr Doug Ross in the hit Sunday NBC medical drama, ER , which stretched from 1994 to 2009. And much like Ramayan on Indian television some decades ago that got roads empty on Sunday mornings, the American series too had people glued to the box.

Clooney’s latest outing, Jay Kelly , took me to another era, to another cinema, Bengali. I do not know how many remember Satyajit Ray’s Nayak: The Hero in which a Bengali matinee idol, played by Uttam Kumar (who had women and girls swooning), travels by train from what was then Calcutta to Delhi to receive a national award.

In Jay Kelly too, helmed by Noah Baumbach (of Marriage Story , 2019, fame), Clooney travels by train – to an Italian arts festival to accept a lifetime achievement award. The journey flashes memories – mostly about his youth. The movie is not serious stuff all the way: as when Clooney does a Tom Cruise act when he catches a purse snatcher, and his exchanges with his daughter have a dash of wit.

Kelly has a reason to travel by train: he can bump into his teenage daughter, who is backpacking around Europe. On board, he meets a motley group of men and women, and these encounters are not only witty and memorable but help the star to examine his life. He is estranged from his daughters, and he is thinking of betraying his agent, Ron (played by Adam Sandler). He is also troubled by his memory of how he stole a key part from his drama school pal, whose career nosedived after that. Worst, Kelly is confused: who is he behind the celebrity mask? Clooney, meanwhile, is now a French citizen.

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