What’s so Funny People?

In theaters Friday: Brothers, Everybody’s Fine

New on DVD/Blu-ray: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Paper Heart, Terminator Salvation

I’ll say it. I like writer/director Judd Apatow better when he is censored. Like on television where the brilliant and hilarious dramedy Freaks & Geeks that he produced and co-wrote lived and died at NBC in 1999. Apatow needs something to force him to be more creative than constantly falling back on jokes about a certain male appendage, which he does literally every minute of Funny People’s two-and-a-half hour run time. Seriously, if you don’t enjoy jokes like that, then Funny People is not for you.

It’s an odd well to draw so steadily from for Funny People, seeing as how it is Apatow’s attempt at a serious picture after more juvenile romps like his blockbusters The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up. Ironically, those had more heart and less cold cynicism at their core than his latest film out now on DVD.

Adam Sandler stars as George Simmons, America’s once-favorite comedian who has backslid into a string of brainless and embarrassing comedies that do nothing for his soul, but are excellent at paying for his incredible (and incredibly lonely) mansion in the hills above Los Angeles. When George learns he has as rare form of leukemia, he keeps the illness a secret and decides to try stand-up comedy again to vent his frustrations with the disease and his rapidly changing life expectancy. Realizing he has lost his touch on the mic, he hires a younger, funnier and unknown comedian named Ira Wright—played by Seth Rogen—as his personal assistant and ace joke writer. Ira quickly becomes George’s only friend and confidant as he is swept up in a first class Hollywood lifestyle. But when George decides to win back Leslie Mann’s Laura, the now-married woman he loved but cheated on years ago, their relationship is put to the test.

Mann, Apatow’s real-life wife, is passable as Laura, if a bit dull. But who wants to see Seth Rogen as a wide-eyed softie or Adam Sandler as an unrepentant jerk? Rogen is best when armed with a razor-sharp wit that cuts those not paying close enough attention, and the sustainability of Sandler’s own real life cinematic dross can only be explained as a byproduct of his characters’ consistent, dopey likeability. Apatow plays his leads against type, and the $70 million gamble just doesn’t work.

Funny People earned back only $52 million of its lofty price tag, and now it is easy to see why a movie with two of the biggest comedy stars today didn’t break even at the box office. Audiences did not know whether this was a comedy with dramatic threads or a drama with comedic elements, but the real problem is that the cast seems unsure as well, which means Apatow either doesn’t know himself—alarm bells should have gone off at the studio, if they didn’t go off in Apatow’s skull—or for once his freeform, improv-style directing backfired. Either way, the tone is uneven and the characters lack chemistry.

At least Rogen’s character draws some laughs, but I would have liked to see he and Sandler reverse roles, with Rogen playing a hotshot young actor whose instant fame has changed him from a sincere person and talented artist into a jaded Hollywood stereotype that ditches his friends for celebrities and cranks out cheesy movies for big paydays. Then when he meets Sandler’s hilarious middle-aged and dying comedian that never got his shot, Rogen realizes the wayward path he is on, and they become friends and successful comedians together.

As is, Apatow’s script is repetitively self-indulgent and gets mired in a never ending sitcom-like Act 3 as George and Ira become Laura’s house guests, babysit her kids and play in the yard. Sure his real-life daughters are adorable on screen, but do we really need to sit through almost the entire home video performance of Maude Apatow’s school play rendition of “Memory”? Really?

Ironically, action star Eric Bana, surrounded by comedic actors, gives the most consistently funny performance in the film as Mann’s charming meathead husband. But here’s a little secret, Bana began his career in Australia doing TV comedies, and his perfect timing shows.

Funny People needed less George-pursuing-Laura drama and more stand-up comedy that actually works. Two stars from Parks and Recreation, Aubrey Plaza and Aziz Ansari provide that, though tellingly, Plaza’s role is minor and all but two brief Ansari scenes were cut and saved for his character’s upcoming Raaaaaaaandy! spin-off. Apatow must have realized Randy’s scenes were the funniest thing about Funny People. The tragedy here is that Funny People started out with a really good idea, albeit one that has been circled around before (see Billy Crystal’s Mr. Saturday Night and Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy), but Apatow’s narrative and execution fell as flat as a tired joke.