Review: Funny People (2009)

[Flack]

Funny People stars Adam Sandler at George Simmons, a comedian and movie star who learns he has a rare form of leukemia. Wanting to return to his roots, Simmons returns to stand up comedy but quickly realizes that his depression is preventing him from being funny. At the comedy club, Simmons meets several up and coming stand up comedians and roomates Ira Wright (Seth Rogen), Leo Koenig (Jonah Hill), and Jason Schwartzman (Mark Taylor Jackson). Simmons ends up hiring Ira as his assistant and joke writer, and the two of them end up hanging out, performing stand up together, and discussing regrets.

Much of the film plays out like a somber version of My Name is Earl as Simmons tries to repair all the people he's wronged on his way to the top, including his parents, his sister, and his only true love. We learn that Simmons has been mostly selfish and self-absorbed on his rise to the top; he has acquaintances in fellow comics, but no friends. The closest thing to a friend is hired hand Ira.

A side plot develops when Simmons, with Ira in tow, goes to visit his ex-girlfriend and only true love, Laura (Leslie Mann), a relationship he ruined through infidelity. Laura is now happily married with two kids, but Simmon's arrival back into her life threatens all of that.

There's plenty of time for all of these side plots with the movie's 2 1/2 hour run time. Each of the film's arcs feel like they could have been a movie in and of themselves. When I originally thought the movie was coming to an end, I hadn't even reached the third act.

It's too bad Sandler keeps putting out rubbish like last year's Jack and Jill. Here, as in Punch-Drunk Love, Sandler shows off his acting chops and his darker side. Adam Sandler is always playing Adam Sandler on some level, but he does a good job here on conveying that not all is wonderful on the way to the top, or sometimes even when you get there. Seth Rogen does a decent job as the paid sidekick, although at multiple times throughout the film you wonder just how much bullshit and abuse a person will put up with for $1,500/week.

The worst part of the film was the ending. A movie -- especially a 2 1/2 hour movie -- shouldn't just "end". You've had plenty of time to build toward something! In movies, people are always willing to forgive and forget, to move forward despite being treated horribly. Real life doesn't always work that way.