"FUNNY PEOPLE" Review

I used to think of Adam Sandler as a comedian who made some movies.  After watching him in the new Judd Apatow film, I think I'll start thinking of him as an actor who does comedy.  I knew he could act from seeing the film Punch Drunk Love, which really wasn't seen by a lot of people.  But, playing a comedian who's life is really not very funny in Funny People, Sandler proves he has the chops to make dramatic films.  He's Billy Madison no more.

Apatow drew on his own experiences as a struggling stand up comedian to formulate a story about a big star who winds up mentoring a young, struggling comedian and learning something in the process.

If you go to Funny People looking for another Knocked Up, 40-year Old Virgin or Talledega Nights, you will leave disappointed.  Oh the laughs and vulgarity are there alright.  They just don't take center stage in Funny People.   No, for all the scenes involving stand-up comedy and James Taylor dropping the "F" Bomb, it's the drama that steals this show.

George Simmons(Adam Sandler) is a wicked famous comedian with roots in stand up who has made a string of highly popular movies. Everyone knows him and he can't go out in public without being mobbed by the fans.  But, his fame has a price.  He has no close friends and he's actually pretty anlienated from the fans who have made him a rich recluse.

On the other hand,  Ira Wright (not his real name, as it turns out),played by Seth Rogan, is a sandwich maker by day, unsuccessful stand up by night, or whenever he can get someone to give him a spot on stage.  But, he does have friends, if you can call them that.  He shares an apartment with Mark Taylor Jackson (Jason Schwartzman) and Leo Koenig (Johah Hill).  Leo is also a comedian, but moderately more successful than Ira and Jackson is the pretty boy who thinks he's big stuff because he stars in a laughable (and not in a good way) sitcom on NBC called Yo Teach!.  Think Saved By The Bell with even less talented actors.

George and Ira's paths cross after Simmons gets some bad news from his doctor.  He has a form of cancer too aggressive to treat with standard cancer fighting techniques.  All he can do is try an experimental treatment that has only an 8% survival rate.  So, George goes home with the knowledge his time left on earth is probably very, very short.  As he tries to come to grips with his mortality, Simmons watches some videos of his old stand up routines.  In turn, he is inspired to return to his roots.  His roots happen to be at the club where Ira, Leo and a female comic Ira is sweet on, Daisy Danby (Aubry Plaza) perform.

So, on the very night Ira is actually given 10 minutes to strut his stuff, he's pushed back when George shows up unexpectedly and decides to perform.  Now, he's following the great George Simmons.  But, George's routine has taken a very dark turn in the wake of his diagnosis and all he gets from the crowd is some polite, but confused laughter.  Ira follows this, and not knowing Simmons is standing at the back of the room, riffs on  George's routine.  The crowd is wowed and Ira leaves the stage a success. Only in the parking lot, where he runs into Simmons does he find out the comic heard everything.

The next day George rings up Ira and invites him to write jokes for his new stand-up routine.  He actually includes Leo in the offer, but Ira neglects to tell his friend and takes off with Simmons for a gig at a MySpace sponsored event.  As they get there, James Taylor is performing and, because Simmons doesn't want to follow Fire and Rain, he forces Ira to do 5 minutes before he takes the stage.  Ira is shaken, doesn't know what else to do, so he does 5 minutes alright.  Problem is the material he uses is all the stuff he wrote for George, and it kills.

Simmons forgives him, pays him $1000 for his work and promptly hires him as his assistant.  See, George has no one because he's become a self-centered, reclusive movie star, hidden away in his house full of stuff and pushed away all those who tried to love him through the years.  They say comedians are miserable, troubled souls and this guy was true to that before he found out he was dying.  Now, he's sank even deeper into the cesspool.  Adam Sandler pulls off a performance here that makes a fairly unlike-able man sympathetic.

Ira, on the other hand is a like-able loser.  He's a  loser, not in the sense he's an idiot. He's not. He's a loser because he's socially and idealistically naive.  But he's likeable because he's a good hearted man who doesn't behave like many of the degenerates who populate Hollywood.  Degenerates like George Simmons.

A funny thing happens, though.  George finds a friend in Ira, and, although he taunts him often, he takes to heart some of the things Wright has to say and it changes his life.  Ira, on the other hand, gets the opportunity of a lifetime opening for George Simmons on the comedy circuit.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Something about looking the grim reaper dead in the eye will change a man and George Simmons, as heartless and self-absorbed as he has become over the years, is no exception.  Adam Sandler brings not just his experience as a comedian to the role, but a depth that allows us to feel George's pain, watch him learn some fine lessons and change along the way.    And there's a multitude of cameos as the movie star tries to get his affairs in order before he treads off terra firma.

The newly slimmed down Seth Rogan is convincing as the lovable loser who manages to rise to the occasion and keep his humanity.  And Judd Apatow's wife, Leslie Mann, is perfect as George's ex-fiance lost because Simmons let his fame go to his big and little heads. And, as it turns out, she, along with Ira, helps George come to terms with who he is and how he could be a better human being. Eric Bana is also along as Mann's a-hole current husband.  A rolling around in the grass fight scene with he and Sandler near the film's climax is pretty amusing.

This is Judd Apatow's third directorial effort and his growth as a director shows.  This one has emotional depth and characters one can truly care about, plus, it comes from the perspective of the world of comedy, which is anything but funny.  If one is an Apatow fan, have no fear, the sex and penis jokes are still there, but  Funny People is less about the funny and more about the people. GRADE: B+