Movie Funny People Analysis - Essay Example

Movie Analysis Introduction This paper would analyze the 2009 movie “Funny People” which was released on July 31, 2009. This introduction section of this paper would try to give a brief overview of the main people behind this film and the movie itself. Moreover, the latter part would analyze and evaluate the movie in all possible detail. Funny People (2009) as the title suggests needed some funny people as the front cast and who could have been a better choice than Adam Sandler for ‘Judd Apatow’. Not only Sandler is Apatow’s former roommate, but also without any doubts, Sandler is amongst the few top class actors in the Hollywood today. Experts say that he has it all: style, charisma, talent, skills, personality, hard work, and some great movies under his names (Uschan, 2008). Whatever contribution, he has done to Hollywood is worth remembering for ages. His roles in movies like “Billy Madison”, “Big Daddy”, “Mr. deeds”, “50 first dates”, “I know pronounce you Chuck and Larry” (Uschan, 2008), and now “Funny People” serve as models for the new comers in the industry to follow. He is also the head of his production house “Happy Madison Productions” formed in 1999 (Uschan, 2008). Sandler’s co-star in this film is Seth Rogen (Funny People, 2009) who is also very much an actor, comedian, writer, stand-up comedian, producer, and entrepreneur like Sandler (Uschan, 2008). This Canadian Jewish, 27 year old man, has impressed critics with his roles in movies like “The 40 year old virgin”, “Knocked up”, “Pineapple Express” and of course “Funny People” (Funny People, 2009). He has not won anything for his acting but he has won best writer award Canadian Comedy Award for “Superbad” in the year 2008. Very much expected, Judd Apatow’s wife Leslie Mann also plays a supporting role in this movie. In fact, not only Judd’s wife but also two daughters play the role of Leslie’s daughters in the movie. Leslie has been in the acting since she was 17 and is known for roles in various movies. Her role in the recent movie “17 again” was appreciated by many critics. Last but not the least, the director Judd Apatow has been quite a buzz in the Hollywood. Funny People is his third movie as a director, “The 40 year old virgin” and “Knocked up” being the first two respectively (Apatow, 2007). However, he has produced and written many films since 1992. Apatow has a lot of experience in the field of comedy since it has been his personal interest as well (Apatow, 2007). As mentioned above, the movie came into the North American theaters on July 31, 2009 (Funny People, 2009). However, in the United Kingdom, the date of its release was a month later on August 28, 2009 (Funny People, 2009). The movie has been a co-production of Apatow production and Happy Madison productions (Funny People, 2009). In addition, Universal Studios and Columbia Pictures served as co-financers for the film (Funny People, 2009). The efforts to market this film started in November 2009 when the first poster of the movie came on to the scene. According to MPAA, this movie is Rated R for its language and sexual humour and some sexual scenes as well (Funny People, 2009). The unrated version of this film goes on for around 153 minutes, which is around 2 hours and 33 minutes, however the censored version is 7 minutes shorter and goes on for 146 minutes (Funny People, 2009). Discussion It is very important here to discuss the plot of the movie before actually getting into its analysis. Adam Sandler plays the role of George Simmons who is an exceptionally unbeaten and wealthy comedian. Simmons finds out that he has caught a very rare and deadly disease of leukemia and there is just eight percent chance that his medicine would work out. Disappointed Simmons starts thinking that what he should do in the rest of his life (Funny People, 2009). He decides to spend the rest of his life doing stand up comedy, which he used to do when he entered the industry. He meets a stressed stand-up comedian, Ira Wright. Ira impresses him and he hires him as his assistant to write jokes for him but they soon become good friends. Ira has concerns over Simmons’s health and wants him to be healthy. Ira asks Simmons to tell his secret about his health to other people as well but Simmons is a lonely person and does not have any one very close to him. However, there is one exception to this and that exception his Simmons’s ex girl friend Laura Clark (Funny People, 2009). Laura is married to Clark and has two daughters. In the meanwhile, Simmons’s doctor tells him the medicine has worked and he is amongst the 8 percent of the people who have been able to beat this disease. Ira is very happy and George decides to have a relationship with Laura. George succeeds in getting Laura closer to him and even both of them decide to reunite. Laura decides that she will tell his husband that since he has been cheating on him for long and she can no longer take it so she wants a divorce (Funny People, 2009). However, when Laura actually goes to the airport to see Clark and tell him the same, she changes her decision because Clark seems to be sincerely apologizing, admitting his mistakes, and asking for a second chance. Laura tells George about her decision. George decides to go away but he is pissed at Ira since during all this Ira thought that Laura should not leave her husband for George (Funny People, 2009). George fires Ira for this and Ira tells him that he needs to work on his attitude or lese he will always remain alone. George soon realizes the same and in the last scene of the movie he comes to Ira and tells him some jokes that he wrote giving an indication that he has changed. Staring with the fact that in this movie (Funny People, 2009), big names of the industry like “Dave Attell, Paul Reiser, Tom Anderson, Sarah Silverman, Charles Fleischer, George Wallace, Andy Dick, Eminem, Ray Romano, James Taylor, Nicole Parker” (Denby, 2010) and others have given cameo appearances in the film based on acquaintance with George Simmons, the leading comedian (Denby, 2010). One thing is for about this movie that it is quite different from Judd Apatow’s previous two directorial films and this is where the problem has been for this movie. After looking at the name of Judd Apatow as the director, people were expecting something like last couple of directed movies but “Funny People” (2009) is a different case. Honestly, Apatow challenged himself with this new experiment and took some serious risk (Denby, 2010). Funny People (2009) has not only humor as its chief weapon but also focuses on different aspects of like friendship, success, glamour, life of a star, relationships and others. Judd Apatow had been remarkably great in choosing Adam Sandler for the role of George Simmons not because of the fact that Sandler is a good comedian and Apatow’s good friend but because of the fact that he was the best fit for thins role. You are talking about a very, rich, glamorous, successful comedian, who can be a better choice than Adam Sandler was (may be Jim Carrey was one) (Funny People, 2009). With having our Sandler as Simmons in this movie, it became easy for Judd to present his picture of the lifestyle and attitude of successful stars and it was also easy for people watching it to accept this lonely, self centered and confused picture of them. Moreover, with Rogen playing the role of Sandler friend, the audience again found out that these two share some kind of chemistry with each other. It even disappointed many people who wanted pure and tons of comedy because of the fact that Sandler and Rogen had other things to do in this film rather than doing comedy. However, all the jokes that they presented during the movie were a little too much focused on “sex.” The movie tries to get some comedy mileage from Ira’s friends. Jonas Hill and Jason Schwartzman (Funny People, 2009) play the role of Leo and Mark respectively and help provide the audiences with some quality humour (Denby, 2010). Despite the fact that this movie is a serious comedy but still, many people would think that how a comedy movie could take more than 150 minutes of their time (Robey, 2009). May be Apatow thought that most that have a message with them take a little longer and his message was that how a serious illness can make you rethink your direction in life. This is why almost half of the movie time focuses on George living with leukemia. Moreover, there are a few errors in the film, not he enough for general audience to find and get annoyed but still they exist. For example, there are three scenes in the movie where the camera, crew, or the shooting equipment becomes visible: the fighting scene between Clark and Simmons, the kitchen scene where Simmons and Ira were having a chat and the scene in which, Ira was sitting besides Simmons when he was trying to sleep. Furthermore, a serious mistake in the movie occurred in the last scene when Chuck tries to take a photo of George Simmons but clearly he had his finger on the camera lens but he still gives an expression as if he has taken the picture successfully (Robey, 2009). There are also some continuity issues in the scenes of this movie. For example, during the kitchen scene of George and Ira, the glass, which George uses for water, is initially a little dirty and then becomes absolutely clean. Additionally, in the same scene, the Red bull that George has in his hands goes on the table and comes back again in his hand. In addition, when George and Ira look at the security camera for Laura there are no people cleaning the swimming pool despite the fact they were there in the background in the previous scene. Maybe worth mentioning or maybe not, Funny People’s cast and makers are mostly Jewish; the main cast including the director and the producers are Jewish. Sandler, Rogen, Apatow himself, and Leslie are just a few main people to quote. Works Cited Apatow, Judd. Knocked Up: The Shooting Script. Newmarket Press, 2007. Denby, David, All for Laughs. Retrieved on February 18, 2010. http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2009/08/03/090803crci_cinema_denby Funny People. (2009). Official Website of the Funny People Movie. Retrieved on February 17, 2010: http://www.funnypeoplemovie.com/ Robey, Tim. Funny People: Review, 27 August 2009. Retrieved on February 18, 2010, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/6099850/Funny-People-review.html Uschan, Michael V. Adam Sandler. Mason Crest Publishers, 2008. Read More