FUNNY PEOPLE review by Gary Dean Murray

I have never been a big fan of Adam Sandler's movies. Even though they have been wildly successful, I have always found them a bit juvenile. But every once in a while he makes a film that shows he has some dramatic range, shows the possibilities of what he could be. The latest from him is the Judd Apatow comedy/drama Funny People.

Seth Rogen is Ira, a struggling comic trying to make it in the big city of LA. Even though he works behind a deli counter, he has the dream of being the next Big Thing. But his life isn't going the way he hopes. Living on a couch, he shares an apartment with two roommates. One is Leo (Johan Hill), a fellow struggling comic and the other is Mark (Jason Schwartzman) an actor who is the star of a sitcom. Everyone knows that the sitcom is lame, but even small screen star power is still star power.

Adam Sandler plays George, a very successful comic living in LA. He's made a bunch of movies like Re-do, where he is turned into a baby, and Mer-man where he is literally a fish out of water. They seem to be a parallel to all the stupid flicks that the real Sandler has done in real life. He has everything that money can buy but still is all alone in his mansion.

George goes to his physician and finds that he has a very rare form of blood cancer. The doctors want to try an experimental treatment with a very low success rate. This is a shock to the psychological system for George.

Just as Ira is about to go on at a comedy club stage, George shows up. Ira gets bumped. Our famous comic takes the stage and sucks all the energy out of the room, with some very unfunny ravings. Ira then has to go up with very unsuccessful lead in and tries to win the crowd back. Ira fails in the attempt. After this failure, Ira and George have a short conversation where George strokes the ego of Ira.

The next day George calls Ira, offering him a job of being a personal assistant and joke writer. Ira jumps at the position. Thus begins our major relationship in Funny People. Ira sees the other side of the looking glass with private jets and high dollar corporate gigs. George's house is peppered with all the trappings of fame, from a media room with five plasma TVs, to a pool filled with nubile babes. Ira finds that George is a 'celebrity sleeping partner' for just about any woman, all eager to bed someone famous. But we also see that George is a very lonely man, with no friends and estranged loved ones.



Ira keeps trying to convince George that he must tell someone about his condition. He contacts Laura (Leslie Mann), his old flame and the one that got away. She is now married with two wonderful daughters and a cheating husband Clarke (Eric Bana). This becomes the third leg of the triangle. George decides that the reason his life is so wrong is that he let Laura get away. The film is the rekindling of that relationship and all the baggage it brings.

This could easily be Adam Sandler's best performance. He's a man at a crossroads with no idea which way to go. The delivery is dead pan to death. His desire to be famous has lead him down a very isolated path and as he takes stock of his life, there is an epiphany. George realizes everything that is important to some, money and fame, are quite empty if you have no one to share it with.

The thing I could relate the best to is all the details of comedy. Seth Rogen shows how even the nicest of guys can be a cut-throat when given the opportunity. He back-stabs his buddies to get stage time and always carries around a notebook, writing down joke ideas before they flit away. Comics write about their lives and we see how reality and comedy intersect. The moments with Seth and Adam messing with the 'normal people' are priceless.

The film does have its problems, first of all being the length. At two plus hours, there is just way too much here. The film goes off on tangents for too long, losing the focus of our two main characters. It is almost as if there are two different films going on, the story of doing comedy and the story of lost love. There is a big switch of gears in the second half that will either propel the audience on or lose them in the muck.

I have loved Judd Apatow films. I think that both 40 Year-old Virgin and Knocked-Up are modern day comic classics. But Funny People is not it that league. It has funny moments but it never sustains the laugh factory. There are just too many somber moments. It is like being tickled and punched at the same time. While not a great motion picture, it is an honest one. There are dozens of emotions going on here, some just painful to watch. It confronts how one deals with the end of life and how dangerous second chances can be.

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