Funny People


Director Judd Apatow had the first box-office disappointment of his career last summer with Funny People, and due to a chorus of lackluster reviews I avoided it in theaters. But a few critics put it on their best of 2009 lists, so I decided to take a look and was surprised to find it very good--I'd venture to say that of the films he has directed, it is his finest. It's certainly his most mature.

Apatow, of course, specializes in films about men who act like children. In this film the man is George Simmons, played by Adam Sandler, a character much like Sandler himself: a wildly successful stand-up comedian who has made millions in puerile comedies, such as one about a merman, or another with Sandler's head on a baby's body. He lives alone in a vast mansion, without any real friends, out of touch with his family. Then he finds out he has a rare form of leukemia.

One night he goes to the local comedy club and is amused by Ira (Seth Rogen), an earnest fellow who works in a supermarket deli and lives on a friend's pull-out couch. Sandler, in search of some kind of human connection, hires Rogen to write jokes and be a general factotum.

A movie about a dying comedian has built in problems that could lead to box-office poison, and the film was also notorious for being close to two and a half hours long. But it's a shame it didn't find a bigger audience, because it is funny and also more emotionally authentic than Apatow's first two films, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up. As with those films, there is a core world of men with Peter Pan Syndrome--here it's Rogen's two roommates, an actor in a dreadful sitcom (Jason Schwartzmann) and a fellow comedian who's got a better career going (Jonah Hill). But unlike the guys in Knocked Up, these two are a little better put together, and if they aren't as crudely obvious, they seem to be realer people. The conflict between Rogen and Schwartzmann over a girl (winningly played by Aubrey Plaza, who is as close to real women in an Apatow-directed film) seems more genuine than the hijinks in Knocked Up.

But where the film really shines is in the relationship that develops between Sandler and Rogen. Though there's a love story involving Sandler's old girlfriend, Leslie Mann, this is about the love between two men (platonic, although there is a lot of discussion of genitalia). Rogen's character is a rarity in a Hollywood movie--he's a genuinely nice guy, the kind of person who apologizes when someone steps up on his foot. I instantly found myself rooting for him, perhaps recognizing a lot of myself in him. He has a stand-up routine at the end of the film about how he reacts to hot girls that I think resonates with a lot of men.

A film about comedians is tricky, because if they're not funny the whole thing collapses. Fortunately the comedy, by Sandler, Rogen, and Hill, is funny. There are clips of Sandler when he was first starting out (he and Apatow were comedians on the circuit together), and the insight into the process is fascinating. I think a lot of comedians hear a joke and instead of laughing say, with a straight face but with sincerity, "That's funny."

The film does take an unfortunate veer into a bizarre section in which Sandler and Mann take up again. Eric Bana, as Mann's husband, is done no favors with an impossible character to play. Apatow tries to make him both a prick and a decent fellow, but there's really nothing there for Bana to play. Apatow also casts his children as Mann's daughters (Mann is his wife in real life), but the nepotism isn't damaging, as the kids are good, especially the older daughter's rendition of "Memory" from Cats.

Funny People is also littered with cameos, and they are well-used, particularly Andy Dick, Ray Romano, James Taylor, and Sarah Silverman. The best turn is by Eminem, which had me hoping for another starring role by Mr. Mathers. Perhaps in a Judd Apatow comedy.

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