Funny People

I'm not a huge fan of comedies, it's just not my genre and I tend to stay away from it, sometimes missing good films, like for example Funny People. (thank you, DVR)

I'm not a big fan/follower of Adam Sandler, some of the things I've seen are funny, some are not.

In Funny People, I really liked him.

He plays the part of a superstar comedian, George Simmons, who finds out he's dying of cancer and doesn't know who to turn to, since he lives alone and miserable, going through life like a ghost.

Seth Rogen comes to the rescue as his assistant and only friend, he's trying to break in as a stand up comedian. Someone like George could help him out.

I liked some of Judd Apatow films (Pineapple Express and partially Knocked Up), but not all of them so I was prepared to be entertained by some sort of comedy, with a clever/funny/smart tone but definitely not something so engrossing and engaging.

The film is incredibly serious.

There are laughters of course, thanks to the brilliant cast that includes Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman as Seth Rogen's room mates, but overall the tone is very sober.

Eric Bana is the one playing the comedian here, his Australian accent was just hilarious and it was impossible not to laugh at everything he was saying.

Anyway, pretty much in the middle of the film, a super tall Swedish doctor (lookalike of the blond bad guy from Die Hard) gives George Simmons the good news: he's not dying.

What? He knows that the few people that gathered around him because they thought he was dying, are going to go away now, leaving him alone once again. He's almost sorry to hear that he's not going to die just yet.

So he sets on a mission to get back together with the only woman who loved him, who has now 2 kids and is married with Eric Bana.

I liked the desperation of the character, trying to get a hold of the flame and passion and love he shared with this woman in the past. Once he gets it, or he gets closer to get it back, he freaks out and loses it.

He's so miserable and self absorbed he can't even enjoy a tear-jerking performance of "Memory" by one of the kids at some school recital. That scene is the key to understand where the character is going in the entire second part of the film, up to the end.

If you haven't seen it, set your DVR or rent the DVD, you will be shocked by how good it is.

I was.