Entertainment, Movies - Navy Times

Tragic comic

Hit machine Judd Apatow has served as producer, director and/or writer on some of the most memorable comedies of the young millennium.

But with his latest, “Funny People” — which he produced, directed and wrote — he gave himself a unique challenge: “I’m trying to make a very serious movie that’s twice as funny as my other movies. Wish me luck!”

No luck needed. Brilliantly setting up shop at the quirky crossroads where funny and tragic collide, Apatow has not only met his stated goal, but he’s achieved a singular feat: Creating a film that allows Adam Sandler to bridge the gap between his two vastly disparate fan bases.

Sandler’s résumé is heavy with simplistic foolishness like “Happy Gilmore,” “Little Nicky” and “The Waterboy.” But he’s also done films like “Punch-Drunk Love” and “Reign Over Me” that, while flawed, reveal a serious — and talented — actor beneath the frat-boy crust.

In “Funny People,” he gets to flash his acting chops while also cracking dozens of jokes that are as funny as they are filthy. No wonder he jumped aboard. And he’s fantastic in the role — not least because his character is much like, well, Adam Sandler.

He plays George Simmons, a comedian who parlayed stand-up success into Hollywood fame and fortune.

Then he gets hit by a bolt from the blue: His doctor tells him he has a rare form of leukemia. On that sobering news, George reassesses his life and realizes he has no real friends and no close family. So he does the only thing that feels natural: He goes back to stand-up.

One performance leads to a chance encounter with Ira Wright (Seth Rogen), who’s trying to climb the stand-up ladder himself but is barely clinging to the bottom rung.

Ira ekes out a living with a day job slinging potato salad at a local deli counter and sleeps on a couch in the apartment of two pals who are already leaving him behind professionally: Leo (Jonah Hill), a much better stand-up comedian, and Mark (Jason Schwartzman), star of a sappily contrived but immensely popular classroom sitcom, “Yo, Teach!”

George, desperately seeking some human comfort as he stares into the abyss, hires Ira to write him jokes and serve as a general gofer — an offer the idolizing Ira is only too eager to accept. The film then tracks the arc of their improbable friendship amid the schizo sociopathology of the stand-up comedy world, where everyone brags on the outside and cries on the inside.

To say much more about the story would ruin a steady string of surprises that bounce between hilarious and touching.

Many of these come courtesy of Leslie Mann, a.k.a. Mrs. Apatow, as Laura, the girl George let get away many years before. The luminescent Mann keeps the film from veering too heavily toward the outrageous male genitalia jokes that run rampant in the script (I can’t overstate the blueness factor; if you’re sensitive about that sort of thing, you’ll be cringing every 15 seconds).

Eric Bana also turns in a brilliant supporting performance as Laura’s husband Clarke, a hot-headed Australian businessman who is cheating on her. Bana, who has had an underwhelming career to date, has never been so loose and funny.

Also not to be overlooked is the razor-sharp rapport between Rogen, Hill and Schwartzman, all founding members of Apatow’s posse. You know these guys have spent hours offscreen just sitting around and zinging each other without mercy; the timing is that good, and that quick.

The film also benefits greatly from an eclectic string of gut-busting cameos. Choice bits come from Norm McDonald and Sarah Silverman, while music legend James Taylor has one of the film’s funniest lines. The high point may be the scene in which rapper Eminem unloads a verbal tirade on a chagrined Ray Romano.

“I thought everybody loved you,” Ira whispers to Ray after the tsunami subsides.

But it’s Sandler who anchors the whole affair, slowly and deftly peeling back the layers of his character to show why George Simmons ended up all alone in his hour of greatest need — and keeping viewers guessing as to whether the character will learn anything from that experience. My one complaint is the one I have with roughly every third movie I see nowadays: At 2½ hours, it’s a half-hour too long and drags a bit toward the end.

But that’s a small price to pay for this many laughs — and this much heart. “Funny People” is another remarkable milestone in the rapidly growing legend of Judd Apatow.

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Rated R for mature themes, sexual situations and relentlessly rude language. Got a rant or rave about the movies? E-mail cvinch@atpco.com.