Funny People (2009): Written and Directed by Judd Apatow. Starring: Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman. Rated R (language and crude sexual humor throughout, and some sexuality). Running time: 146 min.
2 ½ stars (out of four)
Funny People is about the competitive brotherhood of stand-up comedians and the world of raunchy conversations and part-time jobs that exist in between gigs. Funny People is about a comedic superstar forced to reexamine his life of empty fame after being diagnosed with a form of leukemia. Funny People is about a man who, twelve years after the fact, tries to get back the love of his life despite her new husband and family. The third film from writer/director/producer-extraordinaire Judd Apatow could lay claim to any of the above descriptions, but in actuality Funny People tries to be all of these things at once, ultimately becoming overlong and underdeveloped in the process.
Despite virtually unanimous acclaim for his first two films (The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up), the one note of criticism made of both was that they could benefit from some editing. Even films such as Pineapple Express and Superbad, which bear Apatow’s name under a producer credit, could sacrifice some minutes. Almost in defiance of these criticisms, he has delivered a film more in need of condensing than any of his previous efforts. In trying to fill the movie with an ambitious plot, Apatow delivers a film that is comedically successful but dramatically uneven.
The scenes of three young stand-up comedians/roommates (Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman) are standard Apatowian fare: male bonding, sex talk and pop-culture references. Their one-liners and banter are as funny as anything you’ll hear this year, along with some great excerpts of stand-up routines. The movie also has great fun with a fake TV show, “Yo Teach!” starring Schwartzman’s character. Rogen in particular is hilarious as Ira Wright, a shyer, less confidant version of the character he played in Knocked Up, scoring laughs from subtleties and character details in addition to his jokes.
The heart of Funny People however, lies with Adam Sandler’s performance as former stand-up comedian turned superstar, George Simmons. Simmons, we learn from posters and clips of fake movies, has built an immensely successful career on dumb comedies like Merman (self-explanatory) and Re-Do (about a man turned into a baby). By poking fun at Sandler’s own career as a film comedian, these self-references lend credibility to the character, giving strength to the more emotional moments that come later. After a positive reaction to Ira’s stand-up, Simmons takes him on as an assistant, apprentice and confidant to his medical secret. Scenes between Sandler and Rogen are particularly good in the way they depict a man who is very good at subverting his fears with laughter.
Following a few revelations in the face of death, a process expedited through use of montages, Simmons decides the one part of his life most in need of fixing is his romantic life. None of the girls in his long line of one-night stands compare to his almost-wife from years before, Laura (the irresistible Leslie Mann). In this last leg of the film, we get some very funny scenes featuring Eric Bana as a cheerfully pompous Australian businessman. When the film tries to wrap up a complicated situation into a neat finale, its Bana’s delightfully absurd monologue about lessons learned during his trips to China that masks the strings Judd Apatow is carefully pulling as screenwriter.
This tidy ending comes as something of a disappointment following The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, neither of which relied on contrivances. Those films remained, excluding occasional tangents for the sake of a good joke, focused on the main storyline. They used side characters to populate the films’ worlds, but never lost sight of the central characters. Each of those films also offered surprisingly good-natured morals as solutions to the complexities of their characters’ lives. For The 40-Year-Old Virgin it was their choice to wait until marriage; for Knocked Up, it was the decision to raise the baby in spite of the challenges. The ending of Funny People places a similar importance on family ideals, but never makes a strong argument for what happens.
On a scene-by-scene basis, Funny People works, but as a whole film it is unfocused, failing to deliver one cohesive message, but instead a collection of ideas that linger in the air as the credits roll. And yet the film is consistently enjoyable on the strength of its sharp comedic writing and winning performances. That shouldn’t come as a surprise though: these are, after all, very, very funny people.
- Steve Avigliano, 8/03/09
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