FUNNY PEOPLE

Walking into this latest offering from writer-director Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin), I thought Funny People might be one of those unexpectedly amazing films that I love. Maybe I raised my expectations too high, though, because – while it gets off to a promising start and has some real meat on its cinematic bones – the whole thing kind of falls apart in its final third.

Adam Sandler stars as George Simmons, essentially a very Adam Sandler-esque actor-comedian, who’s super-famous and who’s had heaps of success as the goofy star of high-concept movies like My Best Friend is a Robot and Merman. But George’s world is turned upside down when he’s diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia and given a rather sobering prognosis.

Throwing himself into a dark spiral and seeking comfort on the stand-up comedy stages where he got his start, George befriends hapless young comedian Ira Wright (Seth Rogen), who’s as unlucky on the circuit as he is with women. The two forge a curious bond, and Ira goes to work for George as a joke writer... eventually becoming his assistant and de-facto confidante amid the “am I going to die?” angst.

Part of George’s path in coming to terms with his mortality involves his regret over “the one that got away,” an ex-girlfriend (Leslie Mann) he would have married 12 years earlier had she not discovered his infidelity and dumped him. George starts out seeking forgiveness, but gradually feels their love rekindling despite the fact that she’s now married to an exuberant, boorish Aussie (Eric Bana).

Ira, meanwhile, is struggling with his own growing (and, frankly, inexplicable) attraction to a surly comedian named Daisy (Aubrey Plaza), who seems to be intended as an amalgam of Janeane Garofalo and Sarah Silverman, but lacking the appeal of either. Ira’s roommates – self-absorbed sitcom actor Mark (Jason Schwartzman, delivering the perfect mix of smarm and charm) and up-and-coming comic Leo (the always wonderful Jonah Hill) – provide guidance and commentary throughout, and the trio of goofballs argue, fuss and fight repeatedly.

The film has a number of things going for it, not the least of which is an occasionally nicely nuanced performance from the usually over-the-top Sandler. Exploring the “dark side” of comedy is an interesting premise, and one rooted very much in reality, and it gives Sandler a chance to do something other than just ape for the camera (make no mistake, though, there’s some aping in this flick). Rogen, too, turns in some subdued work, and his Ira constantly treads the line between sycophant and subordinate where George is concerned.

There are a ton of cameos by real-life comedians playing themselves, including Paul Reiser, George Wallace and the aforementioned Silverman, and one meandering, pointless appearance by a well-known rapper (also playing himself) that seems like blatant stunt casting. The Apatow trademarks are also all present: guy friends, frat-boy humour and lots of talk of breasts, penises, sex, orgasms, blow jobs and all the “funny” stuff that gets teenaged boys laughing uproariously.

Unfortunately, though, the proceedings get clunky and unconvincing and contrived as the film passes the halfway mark, as though everyone involved kind of ran out of ideas as to how to end the story... so they just slapped together a series of events and tacked on closing titles. It’s as though the story arc, and the arcs of all the characters, just kind of plummet or stop, which undermines the entire movie and sort of renders everything that happened over the course of its needlessly beefy 125+ minutes (seriously, it could easily have been trimmed by half an hour) null and void.

And that felt like a cheat.