Is it an unwritten movie-goer assumption that a movie titled Funny People should be laugh-out-loud funny? Fortunately I had seen a couple of reviews before going and knew that this was not intended to be a comedy, but a movie about comedy... sort of. Adam Sandler plays George, a comic diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia. Seth Rogan is Ira, his newly acquired assistant/joke writer/punching bag. The nearly two and a half hours we spend with these two comics reveals the price of fame for George (loneliness) and its recognition by aspiring famous person Ira. Ira is a true bumbler, fully described by his first joke ("I'm not good looking, and I'm not ugly. If had a personality, I might be able to get girls... but I don't"). Ira is the hero/friend, and writer/director Apatow never resorts to a taking off the glasses, letting the hair down transformation into hero. We just have to (and Ira must as well) accept that he can only be who he is. So we see him trying to be friend, balancing work, not showing quite the compassion in sickness that we might like to see, and being awkward with the girls. My only complaint with the film is the length. In a film where the main character endures a long struggle, I am never sure if it is good film making or lazy film making if I also feel like I in in a long struggle. Sure, I identify with the character, etc. But wouldn't truly genius film making allow me to enter that empathetic state without pushing me toward an apathetic one?
3 stars (out of 5)
No comments:
Post a Comment