Illustration by Harry W. McVickar from Henry James' An International Episode, 1892
People got up early and walked out of the showing of Funny People I went to, and they have no one to blame but themselves. Some movies are better when you know nothing about them - now that I know the secret twist of the movie Orphan, I wish I could see it without knowing what's coming. But other movies are all about preparation and the management of expectations (wow - that sounds bad). Great movies don't require this kind of groundwork, only deeply flawed movies. And that's what Funny People is - a deeply flawed movie with some redeeming qualities. The people who got up and walked out of the movie did so at the two hour mark (roughly) - one of them was the guy next to me, who had fidgeted throughout the movie up to that point. I could tell that he was not seeing the movie he wanted to see - he wanted to see an "Adam Sandler" movie. He wanted The Waterboy or something, not a movie in which Adam Sandler plays a thinly-veiled version of himself who is filled with self-loathing for having made movies like The Waterboy. I don't blame him for wanting to leave.
For me, the key to enjoying Funny People was to think of it as a Cameron-Crowe-style "industry" movie that's about a kind of business first and the people in it second. Like Almost Famous, although that's not going to help if you're one of the many people that hated Almost Famous. It's about as long as the extended version of Almost Famous and has the same kind of casual pacing. And it looks at comedy the way Almost Famous looked at rock music - through the eyes of a newcomer. We see deli worker and amateur stand-up Ira (Seth Rogen) trying to find a way into the business that doesn't involve bad sitcoms or Youtube (the routes his roommates Jason Schwartzman and Jonah Hill have taken). He ends up working with aging sell-out and former comedian George Simmons (Adam Sandler), who is dying of leukemia. George offers a glimpse into the life of a "successful" comedic actor, and Funny People tries hard to blur the line between Sandler and his character. The movie starts with some really old footage of Sandler (out of character and hanging out with friends) making crank calls. Simmons openly mocks the characteristic schtick that made Sandler famous in real life, from the comedic songs to the mush-mouthed nonsense sayings.
Almost Famous's biggest issues are largely structural - the movie doesn't use its running time very well. You know you're in trouble when you hit the ninety-minute mark and Eric Bana hasn't even appeared onscreen yet. The last hour of the movie is disjointed and doesn't connect too well with what comes before it. The writing is weak in places as well - Sandler gives two big monologues that are obvious, unnecessary, and way over-the-top. If some of the "Here's what's happening - do you see?!?" moments were removed and the third (fourth?) act was incorporated better into the overall plot, Funny People could very well have been an unqualified success.
I say that because there are some things about Funny People that are very good. Adam Sandler's performance is excellent - the best work he's done since Punch-Drunk Love (although there aren't really any other contenders in his recent performances). The supporting cast are pretty great as well - I enjoyed the scenes with Jason Schwartzman, Jonah Hill, and Aubrey Plaza the most, and Eric Bana's performance is a lot of fun. The movie's jokes are mostly conversational and delivered in an off-the-cuff way, but I laughed a lot. The movie's humor is mostly in the "Wow, comedians tell a lot of penis jokes when they're just hanging out" vein, so your mileage may vary. If you can get in the right mood for a two-and-a-half hour movie quasi-comedy about comedy starring Adam Sandler, you might find a lot of good things in Funny People, but it's hard not to be a little disappointed in writer/director Judd Apatow for making us work that hard to enjoy it.
"Funny Face" by the Kinks
0 comments:
Post a Comment