Text Size:
A|
A|
A
Email
Print
Judd Apatow is a card-carrying member of the fraternity of funnymen.
A onetime performer at the Improv Comedy Club in Los Angeles, he wrote and directed "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up" and, now, "Funny People," but his fingerprints are all over other movies and TV shows. He has his own band of merry men, led by Seth Rogen, and lots of copycats.
So, when he introduces us to the world of comedians both famous and fledgling, you sense he knows what he's talking about in "Funny People." Comedians who fly to private parties where they tell a few jokes and pick up $300,000, who acknowledge the irony that the more money you make the more freebies you get, and the never-ending interest from the public and paparazzi.
George Simmons (Adam Sandler) belongs to that world in "Funny People." He struck it rich and lives in a mansion but has no close friends, just employees and acquaintances. When, in the movie's opening scenes, he learns he has leukemia that could prove fatal, he has no one to tell.
- Starring: Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann.
- Rating:
- Web site: www.funnypeoplemovie.com/
Contrast his world with that of Ira Wright (Rogen), a young deli counter employee who tells his disbelieving co-worker, "I'm gonna be like Seinfeld." Ira does stand-up in his spare time and sleeps on the pullout couch of his L.A. friends, an actor named Mark (Jason Schwartzman) who stars on a lame but lucrative sitcom and fellow comedian Leo (Jonah Hill).
When George shows up at a club for the first time in five years, darkly telling the audience, "You need me. Who's gonna amuse you?" he meets a worshipful Ira. The superstar later offers Ira a job as assistant, joke writer and, essentially, confidant and hand-holder.
Ira tries to convince George to share his diagnosis with his long-distance family as well as old pals, including former girlfriend Laura (Leslie Mann), now living with her husband (Eric Bana) and their two daughters in Marin County.
Despite the dark shadow hanging over George's head at the beginning of the movie, "Funny People" is a comedy. It asks, a bit awkwardly, should you live as if you're dying, die as you've lived or embrace second chances?
Sandler gets to flex his comedic and dramatic muscles, and a thinner Rogen (whose weight loss is the subject of jabs from the always hilarious Hill) is sweeter and more innocent here than he's been in some time. Throwing Schwartzman into the mix adds a fresh note, as does Aubrey Plaza from NBC's "Parks and Recreation" as a free-thinker pursued by more than one roomie.
Apatow smartly sprinkles his movie with cameos by real performers playing themselves, but then he hits the roughly 100-minute mark ... and the wall.
It has nothing to do with the penis and flatulence jokes (I think I have finally become immune) but how the story pauses to show how silly and sensational life with children can be and how high the price of happiness may be.
It's as if the fishing line goes slack as a woman dithers over what she wants and Apatow gives too much screen time to Laura's girls, played by the admittedly adorable daughters of Apatow and real-life wife Mann. Sorry, but director must trump doting dad, and Apatow has it backward.
One of my main criticisms of "Knocked Up" was that, at 129 minutes, it was too long, and this is much longer. Here, it's not so much the running time but the way it's used and how the movie loses its momentum before eventually regaining some of it.
"Funny People" exits the expressway, gets lost and takes too much time to return to the main road. By that time, much of the good will and thrill are gone.
