Funny People is a true brass ring effort, a reach for excellence that takes big risks. It's 146 minutes, with a story that's more European in feeling than American.
Funny People is a intelligent, funny adult film. Now a days the genre of comedy is now sex. We get a number of new movies every year trying to milk the success of Judd Apatow films. Some of them are good and I can name a few. However they need to rely on crude and vulgar actions to get laughs. We get so many of those antics to the point of feeling disgust for the characters, but when the third act comes up we have to cheer for them it's dumb. Apatow's movies are different there fresh in orignatly and the crude and vulgar comedy is kept to a restrictive level. Thus giving us time to know the characters in between the big laughs. The movie starts with George Simmons played by Adam Sandler, he's a successful comedian and actor. He has stared in many films and is a prodigy to all standups. He lives alone and does mostly everything alone. One day he's sitting in a doctors office getting the news that he's been diagnosied with a rare form of cancer. His doctor firmily says it, he needs to try out expermental medicine. We then meet Ira played by Seth Rogen who's a up and coming comic trying to get out of the deli that he works at. One day George performs at a standclub that he has'nt been in three years. He notices Ira's performance and takes him under his wing as a assistant. They form a friendship and where George goes Ira goes. He trys to make ammends with his famliy and with the girl that got away, played by Leslie Mann who is married to someone else. So when George is thinking the worst his doctor tells him your getting better and tells him get a hold of your life again. You must think in a clinched kind of way he changes his personality and treat people better and go for the girl right? wrong, he exploits his condtion and tries to go for the girl. These are characters in a realistic plot. With problems and smart dialouge. Yes theirs crude and vulgar actions but it's done in a way that everyday people talk, with your friends, with your spouse. Judd Apatow did a very mature film proving you can mix vulgar and adaptable characters. This movie is based on everyday people with the only difference is that there Funny People.
In a time where a lot of comedies involve lowbrow, unintelligent humor, Funny People is a surprisingly smart and heartfelt comedy that features funny performances by Seth Rogen and Adam Sandler.
The movie's power sneaks up on you, reminiscent of something screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond once famously described as "the Billy Wilder touch": A combination of the sweet and the sour, because even funny people, like you and I, aren't always being funny.
Sandler isn't afraid of plumbing his dark side, but Apatow fails him: Scenes of George's self-pity drag on too long, and as the character loses stature, Sandler recedes from his own vehicle. Rogen doesn't fill the vacuum.
This movie felt real to me. It captured a glimpse of humanity's lonely, awkward and sometimes superficial complexity. Some of the poor reviews I think are the result of expectations of this being a comedy. I think it would be more accurately described as a drama with humorous lines.
Funny People feels like three movies in one. The movie is painfully long with mediocre acting by the entire cast. I couldn't take any of the drama seriously when you have Adam Sandler acting the same way when he's trying to being funny. The movie simply didn't work.
This movie may be called 'Funny People' but it is anything but funny. I have always been a big fan of Adam Sandler and with the cast that this film has I was expecting a lot more from it. I'd go so far as to say I would never watch it again. Life is precious, don't waste it watching this.