I'm not going to deal with my feelings on
Adam Sandler's spotty movie career, since I just did that
in this article for
The Rec Show. If you'd like, you can check out my thoughts there. I can respect comedies that tackle larger and deeper issues. A film like
Tootsie dealt with complicated gender roles and adult romantic situations.
Mr. Mom, although a pure comedy, had serious emotional character development. In these films and others, the comedy is always tinged - but not overwhelmed - by the drama. This has been one of my major running complaints with the work of
Judd Apatow. Although he has crafted some of the most memorable comedic moments of the last decade in films like
The 40 Year Old Virgin and
Superbad, his films also tend to run too long. He also tends to generously ladle on the pathos and emotion, which I find dilutes the comedy too much. It's even worse in
Funny People, Apatow's newest dramedy. This time, Apatow reworks a tired movie-of-the-week plot into an aimless vehicle for today's brightest comedians. Adam Sandler plays George Simmons, a veteran stand-up comedian with an impressive array of movie hits to his name. When Simmons, discovers that he has a terminal illness, he's forced to confront his mortality. He does this partially by mentoring a struggling young comedian named Ira Wright (
Seth Rogen), who is hired to write jokes for the successful comedian. Then, the plot takes a turn when Simmons discovers that his blood disease has gone into remission, which then forces him to re-evaluate what is truly important in life. Sounds like a laugh a minute, right??? The film has substantial comedic firepower. In addition to Sandler and Rogen, the film boasts enjoyable but brief turns by
Jonah Hill and
Jason Schwartzman. There is also a satisfyingly annoying performance by
Aziz Ansari as a rival comedian named Randy. But the performances have nothing to do. The plot is atrocious, a blatant recycling of almost every Afterschool Special from the eighties. The characters drift around, cracking awkward, shoe-horned jokes to each other. They are, of course, vainly attempting to service a story that is effectively dead within twenty minutes; the actors are the thespian versions of Dr. Murray, gamely trying to resuscitate
Michael Jackson's corpse. It just isn't going to work. Most frustrating is Adam Sandler here, who appears to have lost whatever spark fueled his early work. His eyes are sadder, his shoulders slouched even more than usual. I understand that the guy is facing death in the film, but even that quandary feels lifeless in Sandler's hands. Much like
Will Smith's wet-blanket turn in last year's
Seven Pounds, Sandler's hung-dog persona here suffocates much of the film. Of course, a ninety minute film might have served this performance better. Unfortunately, Apatow believes that every film he makes deserves the Big Statement treatment, and
Funny People is no exception. This movie is 146 minutes long, for fuck's sake! I mean, CITIZEN KANE told an entire man's life story in under two hours!
Cleopatra and
The Ten Commandments are the model of restrained storytelling in comparison to this meandering film. Apatow needs a ballsy editor to tell him when to cut back. Like all of Apatow's films,
Funny People is well-made and enjoyable in spots. As someone who has not yet fallen in love with Apatow's films, I liked
Funny People even less. But I suspect that Apatow's fans will consider this his weakest film as well, and the film is destined to do poorly at the box office. It's time for Sandler and Apatow to go back to the basics and play to their strengths.