Funny People (2009)

In looking over Adam Sandler's filmography as an actor, I notice that a good amount of his movies I dislike, some highly. I also noticed that I have never seen Sandler on the big screen, since I usually choose to avoid his films. I've seen him in one film I really liked him in, and that was Paul Thomas Anderson's Punk-Drunk Love (2002). Sandler is excellent in this movie too, in a different way, and maybe the days of Sandler's low-brow comedy days may be coming to an end.

This is Judd Apatow's third movie and with each one he seems to be playing more and more of a balancing act with comedy and drama. The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) is still probably his most hilarious movie, I might be so bold to say that Knocked Up (2007) is still his best, but Funny People is his most genuine. It comes from the heart, truly, as it explores the rarely seen backstage life of a stand-up comic.

The movie opens with real footage of Adam Sandler, filmed by Judd Apatow when they were roommates in their 20s, making prank phone calls. Here is a man full of youth, his whole life ahead of him. Suddenly, we see George Simmons (Adam Sandler) living alone in a humongous house, successful, yet solitary. He is diagnosed with Leukemia, and things get worse.

Seth Rogen plays Ira Wright, a struggling young comic hoping to make it big and working at the local grocery deli to get the income. RZA has an amusing role here. One night, Ira does stand-up in the same place that Simmons puts on a show (the theater is one Apatow emceed at when he was a struggling comedian). Simmons sees Ira, and hires him to write jokes for him, eventually opening up about his disease and pouring his whole life into Ira's lap.

Here is a comedy that is actually about something. Every person in this movie, even down to Eric Bana's comical Australian villain, feel like real, whole human beings. Compare this to a movie like The Hangover, which settles for endless butt gags and surface emotion characters, and you have two directors working in entirely different fields.

Sadly, though, Funny People commits a crime the Hangover did as well. The Hangover showed us butts and did other things to shock us, and here Funny People features an endless barrage of penis jokes. They are funny yes, and at one point a famous singer quips, "Don't you ever get tired of talking about your penis?" but they feel like they never, never end. This and that, this and that, back and forth. Maybe this is authentic to the comedian's lifestyle, I dunno.

The movie is also very long. At 146 minutes, it is epic for a comedy, though it is equal parts drama. I enjoy a movie that doesn't feel like it has to rush through everything, but this film could have used some pairing down. Be prepared for the movie's length, as I was. It pays off in the end, but you may get restless wondering what happened to the penis jokes.

Fans of The 40-Year-Old Virgin who weren't crazy about Knocked Up should be warned: this movie contains a lot more drama, is not your traditional Sandler or Rogen picture, and might cause you to feel more emotion then you are used to at a comedy. Which is really what I like about this movie; it feels like a real movie, not some frat boy comedy. The slimmed down Rogen is less funny then in recent movies, but he also plays a much more real character, and surprised me with how different he can be.

I should mention Leslie Mann, who appears as Laura, Simmons' one true love, the one that got away. Though she is married to Apatow (the kids in the movie are also her kids with Apatow), she is still pretty good in this movie. She is forced to deal with some tough decisions at the end of the movie, and you understand her character's decisions, even though you think less of her because of the process she goes through to make them.

And Sandler plays a guy who really isn't that likable. I don't know why the trailer reveals that Simmons is cured of his disease; probably to inspire people to come see it and not feel like its going to be a real downer. Rest assured though that the disease is only the midway point of the movie, there is stuff after that the trailer reveals too, but makes the situations less obvious.

As a dark comedy, it works, and as a creative insight into the comedian's world, it is great. The cast is as strong as ever, and Apatow is really coming into his element. He's working on another level, at least, then most comedy writer/directors, and I can't wait to see what he directs next.

Rated R: Sandler has some sex, and lots of penis jokes are told. Eric Bana gets violent.