Funny People

I need to get my biggest criticism for "Funny People" out of the way here at the beginning: it is not the movie the marketing campaign would lead you to believe it is. While it is true of the ads that this film is more than just a comedy and that it contains some heavy themes involving a near-death experience, it would be more accurately described as a dark drama punctuated by some very funny lines. But I suppose that doesn't get people in to see the movie.

After all, the film stars Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen (who have wonderful rapport), among many other, uh, funny people, and is written and directed by Judd Apatow, the director of "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up." Of course the trailers have been playing up this angle but, as my wife commented, that's like marketing "Schindler's List" as "From the director of 'E.T.' and 'Jaws'." It doesn't tell you much about the movie you are about to see.

This beef aside, what you will see is a very mature drama (yes, I said mature despite the rampant penis jokes) reminiscent of the best work of Hal Ashby and Cameron Crowe. Sandler proves once again that he is a fine actor, and his performance as successful movie star/comedian George Simmons is tonally similar to his fantastic work in "Punch-Drunk Love" and "Reign Over Me." A very isolated man made rich by a number of films that look like rejected Wayans Brothers ideas, George lives in a castle of a house, complete with an indoor and an outdoor pool. His only obvious human contact consists of photo ops with his fans, and the servants at home that he keeps at arm's length. Early on he is diagnosed with a rare blood disorder for which no clear treatment exists. Death on his doorstep, he begins to examine his life. He hates himself, but that he let so many important relationships go to waste is something he hates even more. It's time for a change.

Enter Ira Wright (played tenderly by a slimmed-down Rogen), a struggling stand-up who works at a deli counter and lives on a pull-out couch and in the shadow of his successful roommates, comic Leo (Jonah Hill) and sitcom star Mark (Jason Schwartzman, who also co- wrote the simple acoustic score with Michael Andrews). Ira and George cross paths at a comedy club where George performs a self-loathing monologue that generates almost no laughs. Ira follows his act, trashing George's apparent depression. In spite of this, George hires Ira to be his right hand man, as a joke writer when he decides to return to stand-up, and as a general errand boy. The dynamic of this new relationship is unclear to Ira, but it seems like a foot in the door—and it sure beats serving macaroni salad to soccer moms.

What follows is a long road to recovery, physically and emotionally. I say long, because the movie runs almost 2 ½ hours—a daunting running time for a comedy or a drama. Anyone who has enjoyed Apatow's work as a director knows that his films have become incrementally longer. At times, I wished he would take the advice from the character Alan Tudyk played in "Knocked Up," as Katherine Heigl's boss who instructs her to not necessarily lose weight, but to "make everything tighter." I wouldn't know what to tighten exactly, because there are many excellent scenes. No matter. I would rather sit through 2 ½ hours of this than the same length of loud, racist pummeling robots. I hope there are other moviegoers out there that share my sentiment.

In addition to the great work by Sandler and Rogen, we have Mrs. Apatow, Leslie Mann. She plays Laura with great vulnerability, the love of George's life, left behind years ago when he cheated on her. She has since married the Australian version of George, Clarke (a hilarious if underused Eric Bana). They have a big house and two beautiful and funny daughters played by Apatow's and Mann's real-life daughters Maude and Iris, who also played Mann's and Paul Rudd's daughters in "Knocked Up." George and Laura reenter each other's lives and try to pick up the pieces, much to the dismay of the reserved, more morally-centered Ira.

There is an awful lot of movie to cover, so I will stop there. The screenplay, while thoughtful, emotional and at times hilarious, follows a non-structure that would infuriate Robert McKee. There is no three-act structure. There is no classic antagonist. The unusual pacing allows the story to unfold more like life in that way. I'm curious to see how this movie will be received by audiences expecting a typical Apatow film. The thing I appreciated most about "Funny People" is that Apatow takes huge risks with the ambitious goal of "making a very serious movie with twice as many jokes" as his previous films. That he more often than not achieves his goals is a remarkable feat, and while "Funny People" isn't a great movie, it shows you a fascinating side of show business, and more importantly, it makes one believe that we can look forward to a wonderful and varied body of work from an original and, maybe someday, great filmmaker.

"Funny People"

Starring: Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman, many comedians as themselves. Director: Judd Apatow. Running Time: 140 Minutes. Rated: R for tons of crude language, and for sex and brief nudity.

Consensus: Expect a fascinating drama with fine acting and a few hearty laughs (if you can handle crude humor). Just don't expect the movie they show you parts of in the previews.

I really enjoyed the first half of Funny People. I don't think I've ever seen any other Adam Sandler flicks (I didn't want to), so I was happily surprised by the good mix of comedy and drama here.

As soon as Sandler's ex-girlfriend and her family enter the fray, though, the film comes to a screeching halt. And when we learn new facts about his disease, the film turns itself upside down and inside out trying to figure out what it wants to do with this information. No one knows how to react; not Sandler, not the girlfriend, and not her husband. Judd Apatow thinks they do, but it's so hard to follow the character's ideas and feelings here that the film becomes unreadable. Because we don't know where the characters are coming from, we don't know whether we're watching comedy or drama, so we don't know how to feel or react. The little girls, while enjoyable to watch, are cloying and don't advance the story. And when a lot of screen time is devoted to the people playing games and generally goofing around, you're no longer watching the characters--you're watching the actors simply having a good time, which further slows down and confuses the story.

Seth Rogen's character seems to know what's right, but his voice gets lost amid all the confusion until the end, when we get an all-too-convenient moral finish that doesn't address any of the important issues raised in the film.

I think this could have been a much better film with a lot of the meandering in the second half either tightened up or removed.

In the current climate of contemporary comedy, Judd Apatow is king. And while he makes a killing producing, his real talent is displayed through his writing and directing abilities. While Knocked Up does not hold up cohesively on repeat viewings, The 40-Year-Old Virgin remains one of the funniest comedies of the decade. While both films dabbled with the hybrid mixture of comedy and drama, both were comedies first and foremost. Enter his latest foray of writing/directing, and a film I clamoured for advance tickets for: Funny People.

George Simmons (Adam Sandler) is an aging comedian, hating the cards God has dealt him. He has no friends, his career is washed up, and almost immediately after the film starts, is diagnosed with a terminal inoperable disease. Shortly after he begins taking experimental medication, he meets Ira Wright (Seth Rogen), a struggling young comedian trying to live up to his roommates, fellow comedian Leo (Jonah Hill) and sitcom star Mark (Jason Schwartzman). With his life slowly fading, George hires Ira on as his assistant to write jokes for him, and begins to try and make something of his life before it ends.

While it sounds more like a drama than a comedy, Funny People does pack in the laugh-out-loud moments Apatow comedies are known for. While a lot of it looks like it continues the grand tradition of being improvised (with whole scenes dedicated to stand-up comedy routines), there is a great deal that appears to have been written by Apatow himself. Almost every joke kills because of how genuinely funny and outrageous there are. While the gross out humour appears at a minimum here, the graphic content discussed within the dialogue continues to be as uniquely entertaining as it always has been. I found myself gasping for air at more than a handful of comments these characters make to each other; they are just that funny.

But a lot of the laughs come few and far between what is actually going on within this overly ambitious drama. And unfortunately, it is one of the few things holding the film together.

It is clear from the start of the film, featuring old footage of Sandler as an aspiring comedian, that this tale is very special to Apatow. But his desire to tell this story on his terms, while aspiring to pay homage to his past and present as a comedian and filmmaker, seems to come in the way of the film itself. Scenes tend to go on and on for no purpose at all, and whole scenes seem to have been added to give greater depth for some characters, but end up being entirely superfluous and useless. Apatow is well known for having movies that tend to be 20-minutes too long. But with Funny People, he seems to break his own rule and drag the film out 40-60 minutes longer than it needs to be. The entire final act of the film is downright agonizing for how dragged out it comes off, and how ill-paced it becomes as it stretches on. I found myself checking my watch just hoping it would end sooner rather than later. At 145 minutes, this just seems like overkill. There is no reason this movie ever should have been released as being less than ten minutes shorter than films like The Dark Knight or Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

But the key detractor from the film is its tone and consistency. It never seems to be able to balance itself out as a comedy/drama like Virgin and Knocked Up did. Apatow does not let the film gradually let one tone win out over the other; he just crams scenes filled with both elements almost absentmindedly. In one single scene, the film can go from hilarious, to sad, to hysterically funny, to downright depressing in less than five minutes. After years of being part of film crews in some capacity (either as writer, director or producer), you would imagine something as amateur as this would be totally out of the question for Apatow. Surely this sloppy brand of film-making is better suited for an earlier project, as opposed to what should be a crowning achievement in a continually blossoming career?

While the story and pacing is all over the place, the acting fares a little better. Sandler, playing a popular comedian much like himself, delivers a devastatingly excellent performance as Simmons. It seems that playing a character that is so closely similar to his actual career was just what Sandler needed to prove he has not completely squandered away that promising talent he once had. The visual expressions on his face, through pain and sorrow, are almost enough to forgive him for travesties like You Don't Mess with the Zohan and Click. This is a very adult Sandler playing a role more mature than he has ever had before, and he gives some of his best work to date within it. Rogen delivers a fairly well done performance as well, but seems almost deflated in some scenes. He gave his all in films like Knocked Up and Observe and Report, but here he just seems dialed down. Almost like he wants Sandler to overshadow him completely.

The supporting cast, from Schwartzman and Hill to Leslie Mann, newcomer Aubrey Plaza and a surprisingly hilarious Eric Bana, all give great performances, but nothing extraordinary. It was interesting to see Mann in a dramatic role, and while she is imperfect, she does well anyway. The film packs plenty of hilarious cameos too, some of which are just too good to spoil.

Funny People is just fabulous when it wants to be. But for the most part, it truly is a disappointing effort on Apatow's part. It is far too ambitious a project, and just muddled with tonal issues that it just never accomplishes what it sets out for. Which is a shame.

6.5/10.

Ira (Seth Rogen) is a struggling comic working at a sub shop. George (Adam Sandler) is a famous comedian and movie star who finds out that he's got a rare form of leukemia and won't live much longer, he's put on experimental medicine to try to combat the illness. This revelation rocks George's life. He's made tons of money and has plenty of people to suck up to him, but that just isn't enough. His world is falling down around him, all the mistakes he made have come back to haunt him. He tries to reconnect with the only girl he ever loved, Laura (Leslie Mann) and she doesn't want to talk to him until he tells her that he's sick. That plot line took up far too much of the movie.

George and Ira meet when George goes to one of the old comedy clubs he used to do stand up at and stands on stage without any material, talking about how he knows he's bombing when he can hear people in the audience cough. George ends up hiring Ira as his assistant and their odd friendship/work relationship begins. Ira has always been a big fan of George and is spellbound by the limos, private planes, and the women George has gotten so used to.

Their relationship is at sometimes interesting, I'm not sure where Judd Apatow (the director) meant to go with this picture, he seems to get a little bit of everything, not enough of the good and too much time spent on the bad. Ira likes one of his neighbors, Daisy "Aubrey Plaza" and that was a fun relationship that the movie really neglected. By the end, it felt very underdeveloped. Most of the dialog feels improvised and very clunky. Judd Apatow was trying to convey something here that he just couldn't in the end.

For what does work, this movie deserves a 6/10 rating. It's a dramedy, anyone looking for one or the other will likely be disappointed.

Considering Judd Apatow's previous work most people will probably see Funny People expecting a comedy.This isn't the case at all. The film is clearly a drama even though it centers around stand up comedy.George (Adam Slander) is a very successful, famous and rich comedian who learns that he has a blood disorder similar to leukemia and he'll most likely die in a short amount of time. Ira (Seth Rogen) is a struggling up-and-coming stand up comedian who works at a deli.One night George takes notice of Ira and hires him as his personal assistant. Ira gets exited with this new chance and accepts it right away.Besides being an assistant Ira soon becomes George's only friend. Later on the experimental medicine that was given to George by the doctors ends up working and George defeats the disease. With a second chance in life, George tries to reconnect with the love of his life and takes Ira along for the ride. Both of them end up learning some lessons. This is not a bad film, and I think the premise is great, the problem here is that the movie is very,very uneven.The direction of the film changes a few times, sometimes it feels like its going on the right direction and sometimes it just falls flat.As I said, this is more a drama then a comedy, but the writing is what you usually see in the late genre; the characters are two dimensional and poorly written, specially the main character George who towards the end of the movie seems like a completely different person. The acting was a big problem for me as well. Seth Rogen's acting here, lets be honest, it is atrocious, he doesn't seem comfortable at all and delivers his lines in a very awkward way (and I didn't mind him at all in Zack And Miri Make A Porno for instance) and Eric Bana has a serious case of overacting. All in all, it's a very uneven film but entertaining nonetheless and a good change of pace for Adam Sandler.

6/10