Unapologetic Funny People a Divine Comedy
Do not let its title, its cast or the person in the director’s chair fool you, Funny People is not easy digestible summertime entertainment. It is tough, uncompromising and filled with uncomforting moments and borderline detestable characters, the film rushing right up to the edge of being unlikable staring into the abyss daring the audience to flinch.
Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen in Universal Pictures' Funny People
For me, this is a very, very good thing. Judd Apatow has already proven he can mix smarts, emotion and hilarity with the best of them with box office smashes The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up but with his third effort he does all of those things while also adding a prickly human element unaccustomed to a major studio production. This is a story about the price of creation and the sometimes soul-crushing cost, and while some simply won’t get it there is so much truth within I couldn’t help but be happily impressed.
The plot concerns successful movie star and one-time stand-up comedian George Simmons (Adam Sandler). He’s recently been diagnosed with a Leukemia-like disease forcing him to reassess his life’s priorities, realizing material success has come at the expense of family and friendship. Needing someone to connect with he hires struggling comic Ira Wright (Seth Rogen) to pen him some jokes while also helping to put his affairs in order before he dies.
Throw in Ira’s two roommates, self-centered comedian Leo (Jonah Hill) and egotistical sitcom star Mark (Jason Schwartzman), George’s ex-girlfriend Laura (Leslie Mann) and her randy Australian husband Clarke (Eric Bana) and the pieces are in place for your standard rise and fall Hollywood redemption piece. The thing is Apatow refuses to follow the template. He pushes when you expect him to pull, pokes when you expect him to jab, the filmmaker going for the jugular when the cliché path would have been to tug at the heartstrings instead.
That is what I love most about the film. By and large things that are innately creative and require a writing process (whether it be comedy, music, literature or all things in-between) to complete are intensely personal. More than that, they tend be somewhat selfish in nature, having to spend so much time working from an interior place dealing with the outside world can sometimes become depressingly difficult. Whether by choice or accident they push people away, and while there are many exceptions to the rule I think a person would be surprised just how often this trend tends to be true.
What’s great about Funny People is that Apatow and company do not apologize for these tendencies, not giving George a pass just because he’s also a superstar constantly in the public’s eye. There are no excuses, no reasons for us to warm up to him, only a gentle acceptance of who he is. Being on the doorstep of death gives George a glimpse of the person he is but that doesn’t necessarily mean he is going to change his ways, discovering the answer to that question one of the things that makes the movie soar.
I will say some parts don’t work as well as others. Bana’s third act aggression didn’t feel natural and I could have done without the constant forays to Schwartzman’s television program, “Yo, Teach.” I also felt like Mann, a wonderful actress who continually surprises me, overplays her hand at times, a scene between her and Rogen at one of George’s comedy shows a tiny bit forced and false.
These are minor complaints. Rogen has never been better, while Sandler proves he is far more talented an actor than his juvenile filmography would lead you to believe (Punch-Drunk Love notwithstanding). There is a brief scene between the two as they drive away from Laura’s house that was so pure, so simple in its honesty it blew me away. The weathered and beaten look on George’s face speaks volumes, Ira’s quiet, simple reaction to it alluding to a poignant recognition of what life could potentially look like somewhere down the line if he’s not too careful.
There will be those who want to complain the film does not go far enough, that it doesn’t offer up any tidy resolutions to the problems or predicaments. Personally, I think this is a hollow argument. Creativity ebbs and flows, going into constantly changing directions that are as nebulous as the Universe itself. More than that, people in general do not walk and talk in platitudes and statements like they do in the typical Hollywood movie, instead taking their time to enjoy a cup of coffee or a minute of quiet conversation in a grocery store deli to figure out if a burgeoning friendship has a chance to stick.
This movie is that quiet conversation. It offers insights and wisdom but it doesn’t force-feed it down your throat. It is a step up for the filmmaker, a push into the dramatic comedy echelon in which the likes of Cameron Crowe, Billy Wilder or James L. Brooks reside. Apatow shows the ugly underbelly and the beautiful façade in equal measure with no declaration which is superior.
In the end, Funny People is a divine comedy of heartbreak and desolation that left me in a glorious a state of tearful euphoria and for that, I am not just grateful, I am downright elated. It is a wonderful film, sometimes even a magnificent one, and years from now when great works of cinema of the first decade of this new millennia are discussed I hazard to guess Apatow’s latest will undoubtedly be up for discussion.
Film Rating: êêê1/2 (out of 4)
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