Funny People (2009)

Judd Apatow's third feature arrives with a premise that sounds like a dare: a wealthy movie star, George Simmons, receives a leukemia diagnosis with an eight percent survival rate, then spends two and a half hours learning almost nothing. The film is long, indulgent, and oddly moving, which is roughly the Apatow house style. He casts Adam Sandler as a version of Adam Sandler, and the result plays as a study of male friendship conducted entirely among men who tell jokes for a living.

On the matter of contemporary social consciousness, this is a period piece from a vanished era. The supporting cast includes Aziz Ansari, RZA, and Aubrey Plaza, all doing solid work, and the movie never once pauses to congratulate itself for their presence. That is representation without a thesis. Leslie Mann's Laura exists to be wanted by two men, and the screenplay shows no interest in her interior life beyond that function. There are no queer characters, no engagement with race as a subject, no environmental concerns, no meditation on bodies or neurotypes, and no revision of the historical record. The rich are miserable here, which is not the same as a critique of wealth.

What remains is a modest amount of sermonizing about living well and telling the truth. George delivers a few heartfelt monologues, and Ira eventually calls him out for learning nothing from his near-death experience. The film means it. It simply does not mean it about anything larger than one man's bad behavior. A generous grade for sincerity, a stingy one for agenda. The classification is straightforward: comedy, drama, and the box office, where it opened at number one before quietly failing to recoup its budget.