By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Anna Boden | Ryan Fleck
Starring: Emma Roberts | Jeremy Davies | Keir Gilchrist | Lauren Graham | Viola Davis | Zach Galifianakis
Country: united_states
Year: 2010
Running time: 101
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804497/combined
Jason says: “The title of IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY is its own review. It’s just a matter of where you want to put the emphasis. It’s got enough jokes and amusing moments to qualify as a funny story, but plays things so safe that kind of might sum it up better. That’s a shame, and a surprise, considering how engrossing the previous two features from the team of Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck (HALF NELSON and SUGAR) are.
“As the film opens, 16-year-old Craig (Keir Gilchrist) is about ready to throw himself off a bridge. He’s not a victim of abuse or anything; at worst his mother (Lauren Graham) is a bit nervous and his father (Jim Gaffigan) has high expectations. He’s on medication for depression, and his best friend Aaron (Thomas Mann) is dating Nia (Zoe Kravitz), the girl he adores. Instead, he goes to a psychiatric hospital and checks himself in for observation – not realizing that (1) the juvenile ward is shut down for renovations, so he’ll be with the adults, and (2) it’s a minimum five day stay. So he’s going to be spending the better part of a week with people who have come much closer to killing themselves than he has – notably Bobby (Zach Galifianakis), who pretends to be a doctor to sneak outside, and Noelle (Emma Roberts), the other teenager on the floor.
“FUNNY STORY is an easy movie to like, in large part because Fleck, Boden, and the cast do a respectable job of creating a cast of characters that are able to sell a joke without seeming to treat mental illness in an excessively cavalier manner (disclaimer: I have never had to deal with such matters directly). Craig’s family and friends are exaggerated, but for the most part manage to balance being funny with showing genuine concern while also having difficulty relating to him; they’re flawed but generally likable characters performed well. The patients are by and large confused and frustrated by how their brains just won’t send the correct signals, and while some like Matthew Maher’s Humble seem a little more zany than troubled, others like Craig’s Egyptian roommate Muqtada (Bernard White) are agonizingly paralyzed.
The main characters are also well-played. The stand-out is Galifianakis, who does fine work in playing Bobby as someone right on the edge of holding it together. It’s a bit of a variation on his usual ‘funny but nervous-making’ persona, but one where a collapse is always near, though an outburst isn’t much further off. Emma Roberts has Noelle near the end of her stay, a little intimidating in her directness but not looking to use it. And Gilchrist makes Craig a nice, relatable kid who does have a personality between his tics and need to be a blank slate on which the audience can project themselves. He finds well in portraying Craig’s depression as something that he can usually live with, but which can, with the right stimulus, become crippling.
The movie also shows this by spending a lot of time within Craig’s head. There are dream sequences, flashbacks and fantasies which feature Craig addressing the camera directly, and animations from the ‘brain maps’ that he draws as a hobby and as prat of art therapy. There’s potential to overuse these techniques, which Boden and Fleck mostly steer clear of. Some work much better than others: The opening sequence is odd in a clever way, and the animated bits are at the very least nifty to watch, but some of the others feel forced, especially when Gilchrist appears in the spot of a younger version of the character; the idea is reasonable, but the execution sometimes seems off.
“A bigger problem is that things often seem a bit too easy for Craig. That’s not meant to trivialize depression as a medical condition, just to say that within the story, he never seems to be challenged by anything. We know he’s a high achiever academically to start with, but twice, he plays down an artistic ability, only to not only be capable, but brilliant. His illness is responsible for cute girls either meeting or being more attracted to him. There’s sometimes the impression that he does more for some of his fellow patients in a week than the doctors have done in a month. Even for a story about Craig discovering a measure of self-worth, things seem a little too easy.
“Sure, the closing narration acknowledges that to an extent, but in doing so also says that recognizing a problem doesn’t make it go away. IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY is kind of funny, but disappointingly lightweight, given its setting and writer/directors.
3 1/2 cats
“Seen 19 September 2010 at the Stuart Street Playhouse (Boston Film Festival 2010)”
Diane says: “I was leery of this one from the trailer–a suicidal kid goes into a psych unit and bonds with the crazy kooks, comes out cured in five days and helps some of the other patients get well, too. But it steered clear, almost, of the danger of oversimplifying. As Jay said, ‘FUNNY STORY is an easy movie to like.’ Will I look back and consider 4 cats to be too many?
“A couple of over-the-top story elements (kid’s amazing drawing ability and the man who never got out of bed until….) could have been dispensed with. The animation and fantasy sequences are funny and delightful. Directors Boden and Fleck still have it. (They’re faves of mine since 2004’s short GOWANUS, BROOKLYN).
“I recommend this movie. It’s a feel-good without being treacly, and a heartbreaker, too. Nom for Zach Galifianakis in his role as Bobby, the kid’s guide to the underworld.
“P.S. Viola Davis (loved by all as the boy’s mother in DOUBT) is a very appealing psychiatrist in FUNNY STORY. I wanted to sign up with her.
“Daniel London, who was the more together guy in OLD JOY, plays a Hasidic acid-head.
“Zach Galifianakis’s forthcoming role is the voice of Humpty Dumpty in PUSS IN BOOTS. Great, but huh? And it seems to be a SHREK movie. Has the world gone mad?”