Review: About Alex
The ensemble drama About Alex makes little effort to deviate from the template popularised by Lawrence Kasdan's The Big Chill. A tragedy occurs, reuniting estranged friends to rehash rivalries, romances unrequited and otherwise, and regrets over what is and what might have been. So far, so familiar. Yet About Alex, whilst not always reaching its dramatic potential, proves itself a satisfying watch thanks to its talented roster of performers.
"Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man," Alex (Jason Ritter) tweets as he prepares to shuffle off his mortal coil. His not-so-ambiguous cry for help and subsequent failed attempt rallies his circle of old college friends to head to his countryside home, where initial debate of how to deal with the recovering Alex soon gives way to self-examination of their responsibility for his actions. The confines of the cabin also serve as a pressure cooker for their own failings in their personal and professional lives.
Ben (Nate Parker) appears most affected by Alex's suicide attempt, feeling more than a measure of guilt for having evaded Alex's calls. An aspiring writer in the midst of writer's block, he is conflicted about his relationship with college sweetheart Siri (Maggie Grace), who has just secured a fellowship that would require uprooting to California. Siri, who may be pregnant, has been the longtime object of affection for Josh (Max Greenfield), a sarcastic and bitter troublemaker who believes in confronting Alex about what's happened. Sarah (Aubrey Plaza), on the other hand, wants to make Alex feel safe and protected, and generally wants all talk of suicide to be avoided at all cost.
Sarah, whose passion for cooking was placed on the backburner to become an attorney, pines for Isaac (Max Minghella). He never pursued his own romantic feelings for her since she only ever seemed to want to be friends. That and the fact that Sarah and Josh have been hooking up on and off since their college days. Sarah and Josh have the most interesting relationship out of all the characters in the film. For Sarah, Josh was her first and, though she is well aware of how emotionally abusive their liaisons are, she can't help but feel like the sophomore she was when they first met.
Plaza proves herself a solid dramatic actress. The scene where she forces Josh to account for his actions is a showcase for her well-modulated portrayal of a woman who wants to end this particular strain of toxicity. Josh offers her a litany of excuses - he was brokenhearted over Siri, he was dealing with his parents - but Sarah upbraids him for his inexcusable selfishness with a firm but poignant, "Didn't you see what you were doing to me?"
Writer-director Jesse Zwick, whose father Edward created the television series thirtysomething (another touchstone for About Alex), gets as many things right as he does wrong. Several of the characters, particularly Ben and Siri, could have benefited from being more fleshed out. Parker exacerbates the deficit by neither externalising nor internalising Ben's burden to full effect. There are also one too many unnecessary melodramatic twists, and the sum of its parts do not always make for a convincing whole. Nevertheless, the cast are a warm and appealing group to spend time with.
About Alex
Directed by: Jesse Zwick
Written by: Jesse Zwick
Starring: Nate Parker, Jason Ritter, Maggie Grace, Aubrey Plaza, Max Greenfield, Max Minghella, Jane Levy
