Review: Funny People (2009)

[Scott Mendelson]

Funny People
2009
145 minutes
Rated R

by Scott Mendelson

Spoilers contained within...

The critical consensus on Funny People (a strong first 90 minutes
followed by an overlong, labored, drawn-out 40 minute finale) is half
right. Alas, the entire film is an overlong, drawn-out, and completely
undisciplined affair. The funniest thing about the movie is the irony
contained within - despite being an allegedly more mature and serious
motion picture than the stereotypical Judd Apatow product, it is
actually far less honest and realistic about human behavior and
relationships than either Knocked Up or The Forty-Year-Old Virgin.
That in itself wouldn't be a big problem if the film were funny. But
it's not. It's really not all that amusing. The stand-up comedy
routines are generally not terribly funny. The female characters
(especially Aubrey Plaza) are basically prizes to be won. We get
absolutely no sense of what it's like to make your living trying to
make people laugh in small-time dinky clubs, no sense of the
nervousness, self-doubt, and excitement of doing live stand-up. As far
as comedy writing, we get a more realistic picture of what it's like
to write comedy for a living on 30 Rock. That show may be the ultimate
reality check, as it shows that sketch comedy writers are every bit as
uncool as anyone else.

We get no sense of why Adam Sandler's George Timmons chose to turn his
back on humanity in general. Yes, he had issues with his father, but
the movie states many times that all stand-up comedians are inherently
exorcising demons and dealing with self-loathing. That's probably
somewhat true, but then what separates the loners like Timmons from
people like Judd Apatow or Ray Ramano, the ones who made their fortune
in comedy but still were able to raise a family? The movie never deals
with this obvious contradiction. The film eventually turns into a
variation on The Family Man ('oh, he's rich and powerful beyond his
dreams, but he really just wants a wife and kids'), before doubling
back at the last minute to try to appear more profound than that.

Speaking of that justifiably maligned final act, once again this 'more
serious' picture contains a less realistic view of family life than
Knocked Up. Unlike the earlier picture, the kids are always well-
behaved, they are always polite and funny, and they never give their
parents any grief. It's almost as if Apatow couldn't bear to cast his
two daughters as anything other than angels. And on what planet would
two young children not be seriously disturbed/weirded out over their
mom more or less flaunting her love for another guy, a famous stranger
that they've never met no less? This rubbed me the same way as the
climax of Kill Bill, where Uma Thurman's daughter didn't seem to mind
a strange woman coming into her house, killing her father, and then
telling her that she was her mother and whisking her away to places
unknown.

Yes the film is unbearably long, but only because it is often
unbearably dull and uninsightful. Oddly enough, the only mediocre
performance comes from Leslie Mann, but that may come from a script
that has her make major life decisions on a dime and never judges her
for that (ie - no one could sell what she has to sell). Seth Rogen is
shockingly good, and Sandler doesn't wink his way out of playing a
rather loutish cad. And Eric Bana, a famous funny man in his native
Australia, has a ball with his first comic role in America. But the
core story feels false, many of the supporting characters are wasted,
and the telling of that story is dragged out beyond logic. Come what
may, Funny People is Judd Apatow's Elizabethtown. Like that infamous
miss, this often feels like someone else 'doing Apatow', and the
subject matter is arguably so close to the vest that perhaps
objectivity was impossible. Despite grand intentions and noble ideals,
the film just doesn't work in any conceivable way. It's a tragic
failure from a truly gifted comic mind.

Grade: C-