When movie-star comic George Simmons learns he has a rare leukemia in “Funny People,” it’s no laughing matter.
And in the minutes following George’s hard diagnosis, writer/director Judd Apatow and ace cinematographer Janusz Kaminski deliver some beautifully somber images that capture the lonesomeness of certain kinds of bad news. As George, Adam Sandler looks submerged in a roiling eddy we can only guess at.
Before meeting with his doctor, he gabbed with fans, posed for goofball pictures. Now he’s in a daze, submitting to another photo op with a smiling fan.
You almost feel for the guy.
Almost. Sandler does deft work as a character whose flashes of generosity are undone by persistent selfishness.
“Funny People” is a thoughtful (if at times self-serving) movie about comedy, celebrity and the toll they take on comics who are — but also aren’t — mere mortals.
It’s a morality tale that uses a mortality setup. What happens when a funny guy stands on the brink? And what does he learn as he takes a step back from that long drop?
Is it funny? Yes.
Is it riotous, ribald yet empty? Absolutely not.
Faced with death, George returns to stand-up comedy like a wounded homing pigeon.
Comics like Jerry Seinfeld and Dave Chappelle often celebrate the intimacy and immediate gratification — or on a bad night, mortification — of plying their material in front of a comedy-club audience. This movie pays homage to that tango of killing ’em or getting the death-knell treatment.
At the Improv club, George meets Ira Wright. Apatow’s go-to guy, Seth Rogen, plays the aspiring funny guy who becomes confidant, personal assistant and joke writer.
Money, status and maintaining relationships are themes. Where, for instance, does this arrangement fall on the spectrum of friendship?
Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman play Ira’s roommates, Leo and Mark.
Tensions mount in their apartment as the three try to make their way in the laff biz. Leo’s gifted. Mark has success as the lead on a “Welcome Back, Kotter” knockoff called “Yo, Teach.”
Ira is not immune to competition. He’s not as fine a joke writer as Leo. He has a slow- moving crush on neighbor Daisy (Aubrey Plaza) that Mark might not honor.
Leslie Mann plays George’s one-time girlfriend, Laura.
She’s the “one that got away.” And for much of the movie, she’s pretty much out of sight, out of mind. She’s married to Clarke, an Aussie overplayed with some glee by Eric Bana, and has kids.
When she returns, she brings a third act that’s about romantic confusion, clarity and the futility of tying lose ends. Mann and Apatow are hitched in real life, and their lovely daughters, Iris and Maude, are cast as Laura’s believably aware kids.
Apatow knows that beyond the broad gestures and blue language of the comedies he’s directed lie some solid truths and some pain. “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up” were rife with achy moments.
At the hospital, Ira’s and George’s banter at the expense of the Swedish doctor (Torsten Voges) is hilarious. But it is also self-defensive posturing.
If you harbor doubts about Freud’s declaration that jokes are aggression and revelation, listen to the contemptuous ballad George sings at the Improv.
Apatow continues to celebrate comedy’s traditions, raunchy and otherwise.
The apartment where Ira lives is a museum of comedy history. George has a telling talk with his dad about the greatness of Jackie Gleason. And a number of comics, Sarah Silverman, George Wallace and Ray Romano among them, appear as themselves. (Though the movie teases notions of what that means, exactly.)
At a MySpace shindig, Ira asks James Taylor if he ever tires of singing his songbook.
Taylor’s retort is priceless and pointed, and poses what some in the audience might feel is a self-abusing obsession with the male appendage.
Apatow doesn’t have as many words for penis as there are for snow. But what he lacks in variety, he makes up for in sheer quantity.
Film critic Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567 or lkennedy@ ; also on blogs.denverpostcom /madmoviegoer
“FUNNY PEOPLE.”
R for language and crude sexual humor throughout, and some sexuality. 2 hours, 26 minutes. Written and directed by Judd Apatow; photography by Janusz Kaminski; starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill. Opens today at area theaters.
