Funny People

It almost seems like a con when they tell you that this is only the third movie directed by Jud Apatow. Now it is true that he has written or produced almost every comedy between 2005 and now, but Funny People together with Knocked Up and 40 Year Old Virgin are the only movies he is 100% responsible for. This is a good thing, while I liked a few of the vehicles he created for Seth Rogen such as Pineapple Express there has been a lot of crap too, with Drillbit Taylor at the top of that dung pile.

Funny People is the story of George Simmons (Adam Sandler), an incredibly successful comedian who has been diagnosed with a terminal blood disease. What is interesting about the George Simmons character is that his biography and comedic style is borrowed heavily from Adam Sandler, but they mix in a little bit of Citizen Kane into the performance, lending the character a much needed injection of depth and darkness. Shortly after his diagnosis George Simmons gets on stage and tries to come to terms with his mortality, producing a morbid and depressing comedic act that leaves the audience cold. This is when the films co-star, Seth Rogen, comes in. Playing Ira Wright, he is a comedian at the bottom of the career ladder who just happens to perform after George Simmons and actually sounds funny and uplifting in comparison. George hires Ira to write jokes for him, but it soon becomes clear that his other responsibilities include settling Georges accounts, accompanying him to the doctor, and being the best friend money can buy.

Adam and Seth are funny together and their onscreen friendship rings as true as it should. The same goes for all the other cast members, composed almost entirely of other Apatow alumnus such as Leslie Mann, Jonah Hill, and Jason Schwartzman. If anything the only thing that drags the movie down is the main plot thread, Adam Sandler never seems all that close to deaths door and if anything his disease acts as a “dues ex machina” and invitation to the ultimate justified pity party. I would have preferred it if Sandler’s character was struggling with depression or drug abuse instead, two very common ailments in the comedian crowd.

While the central concept is a little flawed the movie does have things it handles better than the competition. For one it does an amazing job of setting the film in the real world of comedy. For example the movie weaves in dozens of famous comedians, but they all are distant friends, coming on screen to crack a joke about his illness and wish him the best but you know they probably won’t bother showing up again until the funeral. The other thing that plants this movie so well into the world of standup comedy is the idiotic work the characters do to pay the bills. Mainstream comedy is represented as lifeless unfunny sitcoms and awful throw away movies which seem all too plausible, like ghosts of scripts that the various cast members turned down at some point in their career. While it is not my favorite comedy of the year, it is certainly worth watching if only for a surprise appearance of Eric Banna, who shows up in the last third and pretty much steals every scene he is in as an obnoxiously loud Australian businessman obsessed with everything Asian. And yeah, in the end the movie has a little bit of the magic that made us like 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, but without the great ending those movies had I doubt this film will be as memorable.