Funny People (2009) Critic Reviews

Funny People is a true brass ring effort, a reach for excellence that takes big risks. It's 146 minutes, with a story that's more European in feeling than American.Read the full review

The thing about Funny People is that it's a real movie. That means carefully written dialogue and carefully placed supporting performances -- and it's ABOUT SOMETHING.Read the full review

Funny People nimbly intersperses humor and reflection. It is a rumination on mortality, fame and life choices, punctuated with Apatow's trademark raunchy humor.Read the full review

It's the work of a major talent. Apatow scores by crafting the film equivalent of a stand-up routine that encompasses the joy, pain, anger, loneliness and aching doubt that go into making an audience laugh.Read the full review

Even the most forced, artificial episodes in Funny People ring oddly true, because George's life -- the obscene wealth, the loneliness, the fame -- is odd. Perhaps not since "Sunset Boulevard" have the wages and eccentricities of celebrity been depicted with such tough, almost perverse honesty.Read the full review

It's refreshingly unformulaic, but a rambling mess. It's also tremendously funny.Read the full review

Apatow is on the right track. In moving his adolescent male comedies into more adult realms, the humor sharpens and characters deepen.Read the full review

The movie wears thin its welcome a couple of reels before Apatow has finished telling his story.Read the full review

Apatow answers to no one. His worst enemy as a director is his unwillingness to linger in the dark places from which his comedy springs.Read the full review