By Ed Symkus

What’s harder … performing comedy onstage or making a marriage work?

Is This Thing On?, written by Bradley Cooper, Will Arnett, and Mark Chappell. Directed by Cooper. Opens at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, the Kendall Square Cinema, and the AMC Boston Common on Christmas Day.

Will Arnett in Is This Thing On? Photo: Jason McDonald/ Searchlight Pictures

Let me tell you something about myself. I like to laugh as much as the next guy, but I’ve never really cottoned to the art of stand-up comedy. Toss a funny story or two – or three – my way, and I’m fine. Plunk me down in a club or concert hall where a lone man or woman under a spotlight is rambling on and on about the awful – and supposedly hilarious – way the world is treating him or her, and I’m looking around for a shortcut to the exit.

So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that when I accept an assignment to review a film boasting a main character who’s a stand-up comic, I usually do so with a modicum of trepidation.

My track record isn’t very good. The few I’ve liked include The King of Comedy (because I enjoyed being made nervous), Funny People (because it was darkly funny), and the documentary The Aristocrats (because it was so blissfully filthy). The disliked list is a lot longer, but I’ll stick with just another three. Lenny – too damn depressing (and I never really “got” Lenny Bruce), Punchline – flat and dull, Mr. Saturday Night – a sad drag.

Yet, I was attracted to the idea of watching and reviewing Is This Thing On? for a couple of reasons: I have, so far, been impressed by Bradley Cooper’s approach to directing, although in his previous two efforts – A Star Is Born and Maestro – I wish he had given the starring roles to someone else so he could spend more quality time behind the camera. And I’m a big fan of the multi-talented, woefully underappreciated Will Arnett. So I’m ecstatic that Cooper took on a supporting role, gave the lead to Arnett, and concentrated more on his directorial duties.

By now, there’s little doubt that Cooper is more interested in fashioning character studies than telling straightforward stories. A Star Is Born was propelled by the inner drives of — and the relationship between — Cooper’s Jack and Lady Gaga’s Elly, and in Maestro Cooper wanted to look at what made conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein tick. With Is This Thing On?, Cooper and his cowriters Arnett and Mark Chappell have fashioned a sweet spot for the acting prowess of Arnett, who plays a finance man-turned-budding comic Alex Novak. Laura Dern has been cast as  retired professional athlete Tess, his soon-to-be-ex-wife. By focusing on this relationship, Cooper has come up with his deepest, most insightful character study yet.

The pair are living apart after a long marriage. Alex is holed up in an apartment, Tess in their home, with their two kids shuttling back and forth between them. Alex is lonely and disheartened – a lost soul – and Tess is having doubts about fulfilling her post-career life goals. They come across as two people who care about each other — and who we’re going to care about. The narrative focus remains mostly on Alex, whose pivotal experience occurs during a confused evening, when he drunkenly stumbles into an open-mic night in a New York comedy cellar. He finds himself onstage at a microphone, where he uncomfortably begins to tell the near-silent audience about his personal problems.

In a follow-up visit to the club, Alex starts to relax on the stage, becoming more comfortable at the microphone. Lo and behold, he tells stories about himself that are funny rather than gloomy. After some time, the guy is accepted by the audience and by the comedy club community, whose words of encouragement include, “You gotta write!”

Successive plot points explore Alex’s thoughts about succeeding at this stand-up thing, Tessa’s concerns over turning her athletic past into a coaching future and – most important – how they can make their complex, constantly evolving relationship work, for the benefit of themselves, their kids, even their dogs.

Is This Thing On? maintains a light look at these challenging domestic/career situations, though it is not afraid to take some unflinching dives into serious territory. What’s made abundantly clear: neither personal relationships nor stand-up comedy are easy to carry off. The one wish  every character shares is to be happy. The film is mature enough to see that this wish is a continual struggle.

Ed Symkus is a Boston native and Emerson College graduate. He went to Woodstock, has interviewed Bradley Cooper, Will Arnett, and Laura Dern, and has visited the Outer Hebrides, the Lofoten Islands, Anglesey, Mykonos, Nantucket, the Azores, Catalina, Kangaroo Island, Capri, and the Isle of Wight with his wife Lisa.