The story of the new movie “Ezra” about two separated parents trying to raise their Autistic child reminds everyone that raising a child with Autism requires extreme levels of patience and tolerance for loud screaming, erratic and sometimes dangerous behavior. The parents of Ezra, played by William A. Fitzgerald are played by real live couple Rose Byrne as Jenna and Bobby Cannavale as Max with
Robert De Niro playing Max’s father Stan.

The unusual part of this story is that Max is trying to make a living as a standup comedian in New York City, which is one of the reasons for the divorce of Max and Jenna, as well as their many disagreements about how to raise Ezra. I was surprised that most of the scenes of Max doing standup did not have enough funny moments to make him convincing as a standup comedian.

After a huge disagreement with a doctor over his prescribing drugs for Ezra, Max assaults the doctor in his office and he is arrested and jailed. Unfortunately the rest of the story is mostly about a road trip with Max taking taking Ezra across the country to escape the doctor’s diagnosis and then to Los Angeles and a surprise invitation to be on the Jimmy Kimmel show. It is this long road-show story that is where this screenplay mostly fails as it mutates into a series of sub stories as Max and Ezra encounter different situations during their trip. Max’s father Stan and his ex-wife Jenna drive across the country, trying to stop Max even putting out an Amber alert. There is an emotional scene between Stan and Max that is very well acted, but there are not nearly enough scenes like this to rescue what could have been a much better story about raising an Autistic child.

Actor Tony Goldwyn has a small part in this movie as Jenna’s boyfriend and also directed this movie. Whoopi Goldberg plays Jayne, Max’s agent in a surprisingly small part.

This film is another example of how difficult it is to write a great screenplay when you consider this could have been a great movie, but went down an incorrect path which is why the Rotten Tomatoes ratings are a low 69%. This story missed the mark in two many areas, and I do not recommend it, agreeing with the low critics reviews.