Funny People (Friday, July 31, 2009) (102)

This is the third film from director Judd Apatow (not counting the dozens he's produced) and it is easily the third best of the bunch. This is not to say this is a bad movie - but it's not a great movie either. It's a comedy with a lot of serious talk and the humor is not as silly or juvenile as in his past movies.

Adam Sandler plays a guy who is familiar to him - a comedian who was big 15 years ago and has spent the years since making terrible family comedies for ridiculous amounts of money. On a visit to the doctor, he finds out he has cancer and is told he will die soon. He goes to a stand-up comedy bar to do a show and meets Seth Rogan who is getting his start in the comedy circuit.

Sandler hires Rogan to write jokes for him and the two become strange friends. Strange, I say, because Sandler relies on Rogan to be his personal assistant, but treats him like a low-end servant and insults him nonstop. Slowly Rogan convinces his boss to re-connect with old friends and his ex-wife, Apatow's real-life wife Leslie Mann. The two re-connect and fall back in love, causing everything in Sandler's life to unwind.

Unlike the previous Apatow efforts, the sophomoric laugh lines and are not the central focus of this movie. This is a slightly more grown-up story where the emotional parts are more important. For long stretches of the film - particularly in the second act - the only really funny parts are in the sequences showing stand-up routines. This is not necessarily a negative thing - it's just unexpected. There are lots of very funny parts and some very memorable lines.

Rogan is challenged as a dramatic actor here, and I'm not sure he entirely succeeds and sometimes is rather flat. Sandler, on the other hand, is very convincing in the dramatic role that is mostly his life story. Like his performance in Punch Drunk Love, Sandler mixes funny and sad very well. I'm not sure he can play much more serious than this, but he is good here. Mann is also good as are the Apatow daughters (who play Mann's kids).

Like in Knocked Up, Apatow hammers home the point that a solid family is the most important thing in life. The erstwhile family scenes are very sweet and mix well with the sillier scenes between Rogan and Sandler. When Mann's new husband, played by Eric Bana, insults her in later scenes, there is a strong sense that he doesn't fit into this idyllic domestic world.

The script needs a lot of work structure-wise and about 30 minutes should be cut. Mostly this could be done by getting rid of Rogan's buddies (Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman) and shortening some of the longer Sandler buddy reunion parts (such as the Eminem one).

There's a good movie buried under a lot of other stuff here. I liked that movie once I was able to find it. I just with some of the other mess was left off the screen.

Stars: 2 of 4