‘Funny People’Firstly, I have never seen the appeal of Adam Sandler.
I watched this movie in trepidation, and in the end I was neither more of a fan or less of one.
Perhaps it is because I do not find him funny.
Never really have.
But in watching him I noticed some very interesting things about the movie happening around him. Was it just me or did the entire film make you dislike his movie/comedy star? When George Simmons (Sandler) learns of his terminal, inoperable health condition, his desire to form a genuine friendship cause him to take a relatively green performer, Ira (Seth Rogen) under his wing as his opening act.
Understandable, but in watching this film I found myself rooting for Ira to succeed and George to die.
Maybe it was because George was a bratty little twerp who only really begins to think about his life and how he has lived it when it is being taken away from him. Even during the times he is at his lowest he is a horrid little pig. Insulting his doctor, his only friend and selfishly making amends with the family he left behind to seemingly grant him a sense of doing the right thing.
Perhaps this film is truly about just how vapid and self centered people in Hollywood really are.
The only characters who come out of the film unscathed, with a sense of humanity are Seth Rogen to delves to unseen depths here, and Eric Bana as the husband of Georges old flame.
These are the real people caught up in amidst the phony of Hollywood, and perhaps that is writer/director Judd Apatows point, that the big earning celebrity in Hollywood is really alone, and the schmuck who works in the deli with a host a friends, is much richer.
Sweet sentiment, badly told.
Grade - C+
1 comment:
Ugh yes George was detestable to say the least.
I didn't really like this movie either but I'm enjoying how Apatow has been exploring and deconstructing all these notions of masculinity that people like Sandler and Ben Stiller established.
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