Funny People: Will not let you go into boredom
The writer, director and co-producer of Funny People, Judd Apatow is famous for his work in movies such as Knocked Up, 40-Year Old virgin, Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. His movies have an element of raunchiness with an underlying tenet of sensitivity.
This time the treatment meted out in Funny People is no different as it belongs to both the genre of drama and comedy. So the laughter is there but with a dash of seriousness. Funny People tend to explore many strands beside the comedy such as anxiety, primal competitiveness and sexual aggression. It seemed that the director was growing up with the film.
Funny people is essentially the story of growing old, diagnosed with an incurable disease, failure, parenthood and finally sell off. The film develops with George Simmons who is a successful and famous comedian but he understands that he is suffering from a terminal disease, cancer, and thus his life is restricted to less than a year. On the other side there is Ira who is a struggling comedian who is yet to perform big. George meets Ira and the two performs on stage one night and it is then that Ira gets noticed by George.
Subsequently, George hires Ira as his personal assistant. The bond between them began to grow and George found himself quite close with Ira as he began to pour all his worries into him. George brought Ira into his life and he was getting to learn a tip or two from Ira while Ira on the other hand was getting the exposure of a successful career. In no time both Ira and George’s life got entangled. Ira convinces George that its better to let people who is close to him about his illness. This brings George’s ex-girlfriend Laura back into his life. Then what turns out is the fact that George is not dying and he cooks up a story to win Laura back into his life. The end part of the movie is shot at Laura’s house in the Bay Area.
Funny People also cast lot of cameos as well but Judd Apatow in this film has not focused on anything and it loses out on any strong story or character. The relationship of Ira and George together or individually has not portrayed any reflection of deep understanding of human emotion. However the film does reflect that fame and money is not everything in life. Additionally the film seemed to long and the characters were dragged too much to make any indelible imprint on mind.
The movie tosses up too many strands but you eventually get a feel that it seemed unable to handle it, as the end seems wrapped off suddenly and abruptly. But Apatow is a real director and so we can expect that the characters in the film will pull this movie out of ordinary realm of formula movies.
Film: Funny People
Cast: Adam Sandler as George Simmons, Seth Rogen as Ira Wright, Leslie Mann as Laura, Eric Bana as Clarke, Jonah Hill as Leo Koenig, Jason Schwartzman as Mark Taylor Jackson, Aubrey Plaza as Daisy, Maude Apatow as Mable, Iris Apatow as Ingrid
Directed by: Judd Apatow
Written by: Judd Apatow
Produced by: Judd Apatow, Barry Mendel, Clayton Townsend
Also Read:
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Adam Sandler’s ‘Funny People‘ tops weekend box office
Posted on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
May 23rd, 2010 at 11:31 am
Jan Ne Ka Sun: A former late night talk show host