LOS ANGELES – If only Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen hadn't gotten in the car.
If only they hadn't left Los Angeles, where everything in "Funny People" was going so well, and driven north to Marin County, where everything falls apart. Judd Apatow would have had his most mature, accomplished film to date.
Instead, the last hour or so meanders interminably, its tone wavering all over the place, leading to a quickie conclusion that feels pat. And that is such a letdown when you consider the strength and ambition of the material that preceded it.
"Funny People" provides the eternally adolescent Sandler with yet another opportunity to show his serious side, following substantive turns in films like "Punch-Drunk Love" and "Spanglish." But it also allows Apatow, as writer and director, to display some previously unexplored darker instincts, with a story that mixes his typically raunchy guy talk with deeper discussions about mortality. Both men rise to the challenge.
If only they hadn't left Los Angeles, where everything in "Funny People" was going so well, and driven north to Marin County, where everything falls apart. Judd Apatow would have had his most mature, accomplished film to date.
Instead, the last hour or so meanders interminably, its tone wavering all over the place, leading to a quickie conclusion that feels pat. And that is such a letdown when you consider the strength and ambition of the material that preceded it.
"Funny People" provides the eternally adolescent Sandler with yet another opportunity to show his serious side, following substantive turns in films like "Punch-Drunk Love" and "Spanglish." But it also allows Apatow, as writer and director, to display some previously unexplored darker instincts, with a story that mixes his typically raunchy guy talk with deeper discussions about mortality. Both men rise to the challenge.
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