It's Kind of a Funny Story (Friday, October 8, 2010) (131)

The worst thing about It's Kind of a Funny Story is that it's a movie about a teenager who goes to a mental hospital where he learns that he's basically normal after all. The best thing about it is that it's much better than almost every mental hospital movie out there.


Craig (Keir Gilchrist, who also plays the son on The United States of Tara) is a typically mixed up Brooklyn teen whose life is full of anxiety, self-doubt and disappointment. As the movie opens he is flirting with the idea of suicide, so he checks himself into a hospital. It seems that the teen psych wing is under construction, so he's put on the adult psych floor.


He soon meets Bobby (Zach Galifianakis), who seems to be the leader-sorta-dude of the crazy people and takes Craig under his wing. Ultimately he also meets Noelle (Emma Roberts, Eric's daughter and Julia's niece) who is a teen cutter. They begin to flirt and fall for one another in a very sweet way.


The film is written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (based on a book by Ned Vizzini) who are also the pair behind Half Nelson and Sugar, two films for which I have tremendous respect. These two have a very good ear for dialogue and a wonderfully creative view of the world.


One thing they do particularly well is editing and montage. Boden is an editor and she's fantastic at it. Montage is a very subtle art that can be wonderful and powerful when done well, or really dull and hackneyed when done badly. Boden does it really well. There are two wonderful montages in this that really add a lovely depth to the film, suggesting the confusion and joy of being a teen. Kudos to her for this!


Of all the acting performances (a who's-who of top-notch indie talent including Lauren Graham, Jeremy Davies and Matthew Maher) the one that really sticks with me the most was Viola Davis who plays the head psychiatrist in the hospital. The psych doc is normally a totally throw-away role in these mental hospital movies, but she's really wonderful here. She's warm, funny, honest and seems to live in the real, rather than some ridiculous psych world that many characters like this inhabit. Again, I give a lot of credit to the very naturalistic writing - but Davis does a wonderful job with the role that would otherwise be banal.


I was also very impressed with Keir Gilchrist's performance. I have only known him from The United States of Tara where he plays a very flamboyant gay teen. Here there is no suggestion in the slightest of anything gay in him. I was partly moved by the honesty of his performance, but also his clear ability to move from one very specific character (a faggy, gay teen) to another (a typically anxious teen).


There's a lot of really nice stuff in this film. It's very well written, well directed and well acted. The thing I keep coming up against when I think about it is that it's a really dull story that I've seen hundreds of times. I really don't need to see another psych hospital movie. Let's retire the concept. I will say that if there was ever a mental ward hospital movie that rose above the constraints of the setting, it was this one.


Stars: 3 of 4