Comedy Tonight

Since James helped me move last August from Ashburnham to Somerville (although he didn't really have a choice since he was living at my parents house during his student teaching), I decided to be a good friend and return the favor and help him move from Brockton to Uxbridge. My reward for helping him move? I was treated to an afternoon screening of Judd Apatow's new film, Funny People. I had been looking forward to seeing this for quite some time, the line-up of talent seemed like a can't miss, knock-out film (full disclosure, I wasn't expecting a laugh out loud comedy, I knew going in that it was going to be a dramedy). SEEMED is the key word. Funny People is (so far) the biggest disappointment of the year.

The movie opens and we're introduced to superstar actor/comedian George Simmonds (Sandler), who is told that he has a terminal blood disease. He of course, is miserable and lonely, and spends most of his time in his beach front mansion. He enlists the help of Ira Wright (Rogen), and up and coming comic trying to find his way, to write jokes for him and become his assistant. George takes Ira under his wing to teach him about life (comedy, girls, growing up, etc.) and along the way, a quasi-friendship develops. George tries to atone for his past wrong-doings, most notably, an attempt to patch things up with an ex-girlfriend, Laura (Mann). He eventually finds out he's going to survive the disease, and decides he's going to change his life (surprise) and he's going to try and win Laura back. Hilarity and touching moments are supposed to ensue. They do, but they're extremely labored and only sort of grant a chuckle from the audience, rather than the laugh-out-loud Apatow is known for.

My biggest problem with the film? It's really two movies. The first, is the George/Ira friendship development. The second is George trying to win Laura back, who is now happily married to Clarke, the absolutely hysterical Eric Bana, who steals the the entire movie. Movie 1 is celeb/comedian cameo heavy, with the likes of Norm McDonald, Ray Romano, Andy Dick (who delivers the funniest line in the movie), Dave Attell, Sara Silverman, and Eminem (who, oddly, delivers the most resounding line, and, IMHO, you're in trouble when that task falls to Em). Movie 2 is about retribution and trying to recapture what you've lost. And, by the time it get's to that part, you're more anxious for the film to end and dont really care about how it plays out. Apatow seems torn between which story he wants to tell; is this a coming of age comic story or one about not taking things for granted or one about trying to reclaim your past, and the audience is cheated in the end, and the result is a severely unbalanced film. It clocks in at about 150 minutes, and that's way too long for an Adam Sandler movie, no matter how awesome it may be. The last 10 minutes seemed to be just tacked on because Apatow realized that he was lazing towards a conclusion, but realized how much time had gone by and wanted to quickly finish up the movie.

I really, really wanted to like this. The talent was there, the concept was (sort of) there, but it never really got off the ground. There were way too many sub-plots and characters that didn't get fully developed and, quite frankly, weren't necessary. The film would have been much tighter if it focused more on the Sandler/Rogen relationship; we didn't need to be introduced to his quasi famous roommate (Jason Schwartzman) and his show Yo Teach! and his competitive comedian roommate (Jonah Hill), because they didn't factor into moving the plot forward, just made the movie kind of stall-out for 10 minute periods. I understand what Apatow was trying to show (people, like Schwartzman, become disillusioned with even small amounts of fame), but it could have been talked about once, and then gone on. Sandler and Rogen play well off each other, and the scenes between Sandler, Rogen, Manna and Bana are outstanding; the highlight of the movie, too bad it didn't come until after the 2 hour mark, when I had pretty much already lost all interest.

It seems that the only real people that will be able to connect with this are professional comedians, their family and friends, and Adam Sandler because, when you get right down to it, this could be his bio-pic.

If this had been shortened to about an hour and a half, cut out about a third of the beginning, did away with the roommates, and a few other minor characters and subplots, it could have been excellent. Judd Apatow has a really great movie somewhere inside of him, he needs to just go with his instincts and let it out. Stop trying so hard. There were a lot of people out there rooting for you to make that cross-over from purely gross-out comedy (myself included), and they were majorly disappointed. Grade: D

In other news, there was a great article in the New York Times yesterday about the continued implications of steroids in baseball, Globe columnist Chad Finn said that it's the voice of reason over last weeks events. I'm inclined to agree.