Funny People (2009, Directed by Judd Apatow)

"Success has made a failure of our home." -Loretta Lynn, 1963

"Dying is easy. Comedy is hard."- Alan Swann (Peter O'Toole) in My Favorite Year

I was in no great hurry to see Judd Apatow's Funny People when it came out in 2009, despite being a big fan of numerous TV shows (The Larry Sanders Show, Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared) and films (The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up) he has helmed. I was spooked by Adam Sandler, initially. There is a lot of Gilbert Gottfried in him. It baffles me why he has been so successful. This wasn't a deal breaker, though. The was the initial thought that Funny People was going to be an autobiographical and more dramatic take on the world of stand-up comedy that really put the brakes on for me. Uh oh. 

Fortunately, Funny People is not exactly the Judd Apatow Story. The film, of course, is playing with the audience's expectations by making the premise of this would-be comedy centre on that most serious and unamusing subject- death. Sandler plays George Simmons, a hugely successful comedy film star, not unlike the actor, himself (meta!). At the apex of his career, he learns that he has a rare blood disease. He must face death. Despite his success, he is lonely. He has no real friends and is estranged from his family. How will George face this crisis?

In a daze, George reaches out to the things that have given him the most comfort- the stand-up stage and his relationship with his ex-fiancee, Laura (Leslie Mann). In trying to re-connect with his past, he encounters and be-friends a young comedian, Ira (Seth Rogan). If George lives in the rarefied air of private jets and Malibu beach-front compounds, Ira is at the other end of the spectrum. He sleeps on his friend's couch, works at a deli and is still trying to find his comedic voice. So, the film is tracing both George and Ira's journeys to find themselves.

So, Funny People has a lot to work with. I was anticipating some themes to emerge that might take Apatow into a new artistic place. There was certainly ample space (like nearly three hours of space!) to explore what makes these characters tick, how people react when facing death, or even what kind of people are drawn to a career in comedy. That space was largely unexplored, or clumsily done. 

I would like to think that there is also room for actual comedy, too! There are some really, really talented people here to draw from, aside from Apatow and Rogan- Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman and Azis Anzari all appeared as comedians. So, why does the film feel so forced and mirthless at times? We had lots of characters *in the film* laugh at dreadfully unfunny bits in the Comedy Scenes to help us along (I swear, I will hear Rogan's monotone heh-heh-heh in my nightmares for the next five years), but as for honest-to-God funny lines? I think there might have been six. That's not good enough, even in a dramedy. 

I know we are supposed to take it for granted that George is this charismatic comedy genius ("I grew up on you!"), but does every part of his character have to be so half-baked? One moment George is telling an appalling story about how his comedy comes from trying to avoid his father's violence and the next minute we have a rather bland scene where the two are seeming to bond by the pool over a Jackie Gleason conversation. So, it's all good? As this was part of a sequence of scenes where George was making good with his family, I was surprised that Funny People did not put a Relationships Repaired tally on the screen. None of this rang true.

For that matter, I did not really buy any relationship in the movie. George and Laura, George and Ira, Ira and his friends, Ira and Daisy, Laura and her family, Eminem and Ray Romano- none of them made sense. Characters make huge life decisions seemingly on a whim all of the time in movies, but it is so over the top here.  I am willing to suspend my disbelief for anything, but a person's humanity should never be judged on how they react to a performance of a song from fucking Cats. George was doomed for Laura when he didn't mist up over her daughter's (her real life daughter, at that!) rendition of Memory. That was that. So, Apatow is basically forcing the audience to validate his daughter's performance, or *they* are selfish, fucking dicks. Dirty pool, mister. Dirty pool.

If we are being charitable to Apatow, we could say this movie is a love letter to his family. We could also say that he was doing a shout out to all of friends in comedy. Most likely this is a little tribute to his early life in comedy as being a sort of an 

Ira to Gary Shandling.

I think it is certainly worthy to branch out into different territory for an artist. Coming to terms with who you are, dealing with death, fighting your past, trying to remember who you were- all of this is great fodder for a drama, or a comedy, or even both. You could set this in the world of comedy, or anything and there is a lot to work with. Unfortunately, Funny People did not deliver the goods for me.