'Funny People': Apatow comedy/drama comes up short on laughs

MOVIE REVIEW

Considering all the funny people who contributed to the creative mix of "Funny People," it's a crying shame this good-hearted comedy doesn't deliver more genuine laughs.

Granted, the movie's intention is to show that people who joke for a living also have a somber side. But as the third outing from comedy auteur Judd Apatow, Hollywood's king of funny, "Funny People" is a serious disappointment.

Apatow strives to document the private lives of professional comedians, from box-office rulers to hungry neophytes who spend as much time obsessing over their craft as they do dreaming of their big break.

At times Apatow succeeds brilliantly, as when we drop into the offhand dynamics of struggling stand-up Ira Wright (Seth Rogen) and the barbed competitive banter he shares with his roommates (Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman). Apatow also knows the tortured details of life for a sequestered superstar such as George Simmons (Adam Sandler), whose acid wit turned decidedly bitter after he made it out of the cutthroat comedy trenches and onto the Hollywood A-list.

Apatow delights and excels in bits that play as insider observations about show business and the industry of comedy. But while some of it seems so effortless, he awkwardly drops the ball in his reach for resonance between maudlin human drama and the funny business of real life.

When George is told he has a rare and usually fatal blood disease, his carefully controlled life comes un-

tethered, and the isolated bitterness he's cultivated as a self-absorbed narcissist gives way to genuine hostility toward the world and himself. He tries to compensate by getting back to his stand-up roots, dropping into clubs for caustic sets that leave audiences more stunned than star-struck.

He catches Ira's up-and-coming routine and plucks him out of the stand-up gutter to be his part-time assistant/joke writer and full-time whipping boy/confessor. Ira is thrilled by this career- making break, but he's torn between thinking there's a real relationship growing and the more likely scenario that George simply needs a playmate to assuage his confused loneliness.

George's soul searching causes him to wreak havoc in another relationship, with ex-girlfriend Laura (Leslie Mann, Apatow's wife).

Despite the depth Sandler, Rogen, Mann (and Eric Bana as Laura's annoying husband) bring to their characters, the interactions often feel forced. It's as though Apatow's agenda is battling itself over whether soulful funny is more important than mischievous funny. As a consequence, the script feels strained and haywire, a problem Apatow's "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" didn't face.

Sandler, Rogen and the assortment of old and new showbiz buddies Apatow crams into the movie play along as best they can, but they've all done better work.

As for the jokes, they're equally divided between funny and filthy. Sometimes those two categories intersect, but obsessive riffing over masturbation and male genitalia is a shoddy crutch that Apatow doesn't need, considering his authority in showing what really makes people funny.

Ted Fry: tedfry@hotmail.com