Even in its flaws and near-failure, there's something mighty impressive about Funny People. It's indulgent, for sure, but how can it not be, with this kind navel-gazing premise? This is Judd Apatow's dissection of Hollywood's comedy world, and he does so thoroughly, depicting in rich observational detail the many different paths "funny people" can take to achieve success in showbiz. In a performance that would no doubt color his future films, Adam Sandler plays a character very close to himself that paints an unflattering picture of his own career so far.
There's a lot of pent-up anger in Sandler's performance, so much so that it's enough to carry the 2 hour 26 minutes running time by itself. His self-pity is repetitive, but nonetheless fascinating and in-depth, like a sorry schlub version of Charles Foster Kane. As George Simmons, a comic-turned-movie star dying from a rare form of leukemia, Sandler destroys the persona he's built from years of making low-brow comedies. His trademark silly-talk and odd songs are portrayed as a pathetic comedian's way of being too lazy to be funny again, damn near questioning the fans of those Happy-Madison output. Apatow is honest with Sandler in giving George equal amount of fans and detractors.
George doesn't know how to separate himself from his fame. His sister scolds him for never letting his nephews get to know him, and George's response is, "I send them DVDs of my movies all the time!" To recapture his youth in the face of death, George goes back to doing stand-up at clubs, but his set always deteriorate into painfully humorless contempt ("What are you people gonna do when I leave? Who will amuse you then?").
It's there that he meets Seth Rogen's Ira, a stand-up comic just starting out, and hires him as an assistant. Ira's relationship with Simmons mimics that of Patrick Fugit and Billy Crudup in Almost Famous; Ira learns all the wrong life lessons from the star, reluctantly getting involved in George's love life while struggling with his own. Ira sees first-hand how the fame and fortune he idolizes can become worthless. Since George learns of his mortality in the opening scene, we never see how he behaves before, but it's easy to assume that it's not much different. He just has an excuse now.
It's a great take on comedians' lives, but unfortunately begins and ends there. Apatow goes for a Man on the Moon / The King of Comedy kind of movie, but doesn't have a compelling story to support this character. As if distracted by a different plot, the film takes a sharp turn halfway in, as the dark portrayal of the comedy circuit give way to a familial drama—a far less interesting territory—involving George's ex (Leslie Mann) and her neglectful husband (Eric Bana). The shift of focus is meant to explore George's lack of fulfillment in life, but it's such a derailing of what came before that the movie struggles to maintain a coherent point. While the matured (though traditional and conservative, as expected from Apatow) take on the "girl that got away" concept is appreciated, it should not have hijacked the similar point about life regrets it was already making in the first half.
There's not much to this movie aside from the performances, but it's the kind of movie where those performances count. While Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman (the latter two playing Ira's tangential roommates) are all their usual self, Mann and Bana bring full performances to two throwaway characters. Sandler is, of course, more subdued than normal. It's not quite the re-contextualization he did in Punch-Drunk Love, but given how Funny People examines his own career (even going so far as using real home movies and stand-up gigs from Sandler's youth as George's), Sandler's performance comes across as earnest and woefully affecting.
All this doesn't sound very funny, is it? Well, it's not a comedy. It's a tragedy about so-called funnymen. The jokes exist in this movie out of character necessity, like music in Amadeus. Apatow is on target with the fake movies he's conjured up (My Best Friend is a Robot, co-starring Owen Wilson? Genius.), but unlike Hollywood satires like Tropic Thunder, the fake movies aren't there as parodies; they're there to give a rounded sense of George Simmons' career trajectory. The same goes for the myriad of cameos from the comedy world—from Ray Romano and Sarah Silverman to Dave Attell and Paul Reiser—they're all there to complete the world Sandler's alternate self inhabits.
"Funny People" opens July 31, 2009 and is rated R. Comedy, Drama. Written and directed by Judd Apatow. Starring Adam Sandler, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Jason Schwartzman, RZA, Aubrey Plaza, Aziz Ansari.
