Anna Daniels
Judd Apatow’s underrated melancholic comedy Funny People comes across, at times, as being deeply personal. It’s not for nothing, as Apatow and Sandler have been friends since before either of them found fame, with Sandler once telling Film Monthly that while there are aspects to his character that are different from his own life, there are also “some things that hit close to home,” an idea apparently galvanized by the continued friendship with his former roommate.
In Funny People, Sandler plays the strangely familiar character of George Simmons, an aging comedian who finds fame and fortune by starring in a string of reviled family movies and who’s forced to reevaluate his life after discovering he has an inoperable and terminal health condition. Starring alongside a strong cast including Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, and Jason Schwartzman, Sandler plays around with a specific aspect of his public persona and openly lays bare the ugliness that many of his detractors see in his work and comedic skill-set.
It’s a complex and intimate performance unlike anything Sandler has delivered in his career so far. And it showcases that the star is capable of self-awareness and introspection, even if so many of his own films so consistently lack in such things. With a plotline that oddly mirrors The Great Gatsby, Funny People might be one of Apatow’s more sophisticated films, even if it does run a little too long at a whopping two and a half hours. Regardless, it might be the one film from Sandler’s messy filmography that actually reveals the most about him as a comedian.
Written by: Looper
