It’s Kind of a Funny Story” has a problematic title. Between the watercolor cityscapes that ornament the trailer and the film’s cast of teenage misfits, “Funny Story” promises the snark and irony of “Juno,” but strays — despite well-meaning attempts, it’s not very funny at all.
Written and directed by the “Half Nelson” duo of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the film profiles a suicidal teenager named Craig (Keir Gilchrist) and the oddballs he meets at a psychiatric hospital. Once behind the hospital’s promising doors, however, the shallowness of its characters and the predictable plot leaves us reaching for a capsule of Zoloft faster than its depressed protagonist.
Based on the 2006 novel by Ned Vizzini, “Funny Story” chronicles Craig’s mental collapse when the pressure at his elite high school proves too much. Craig’s commitment to his family — composed of a workaholic father, “fragile” mother and bespectacled “child genius” sister — later foils his attempt at suicide and prompts him to check into Argenon Hospital instead.
There, amongst the psychiatric ward’s array of crackpots, Craig finds the answer to all his adolescent woes. He falls in love with chronic cutter Noelle (Emma Roberts) and befriends cleft-lipped Humble (Matthew Maher), all while sharing nights with his roommate, a middle-aged Egyptian recluse named Muqtada (Bernard White).
Equally neurotic patients that populate Argenon include a post-Patriot Act schizophrenic and Solomon (Daniel London), a Hasidic Jew who can no longer tolerate noise after an ill-fated acid trip.
One side effect of this madcap ensemble is that the film only has time to glibly skim over these characters. In crafting “Funny Story,” Boden and Fleck sought to avoid the cynicism and sarcasm of modern teenage films and to instead pay tribute to the idyllic John Hughes films of yore (namely “The Breakfast Club”). But, while the characters in those ‘80s films are so well-developed that they render the plot inconsequential, “Funny Story” brings together half-developed characters and a half-developed plot that, in the end, amount to a half-hearted coming-of-age tale.
The only believable and sympathetic patient that Craig befriends is Zach Galifianakis’ (“The Hangover”) Bobby. A self-described Doogie Howser in his own right, Bobby steers Craig clear from his depression, just as Craig unintentionally returns the favor as the two become friends. In lieu of Bobby’s green sweater that “smells like a hobo’s Band-Aid,” Craig donates his uppity dad’s collared shirt and preps Bobby for a group home interview.
That two-way mentorship did not carry over off-screen. “There was no really, like, ‘Keir, alright I’m going to teach you the ropes now,’” Gilchrist said of his relationship with Galifianakis. “There were a lot of people who were mentors on the set, and Zach was just one of them.”
To be sure, Keir’s placid look of naiveté does a lot for his character. A Justin Long look-a-like, the young actor maintains a bored, deadpan face throughout the film that was probably intended to resemble angst. If we’re supposed to interpret him as being emblematic of the everyday teenager, it serves Craig well. The teenage tendency to punctuate spoken sentences with “ums,” “you knows,” and “sort ofs,” shows that Keir still has a ways to go before reaching the thespian fluency of his veteran counterparts.
Galifianakis, on the other hand, proves to be the redeeming factor in this otherwise manic disorder of a film. What drew the screwball comedian toward the dark side of drama was Bobby’s complex temperament. “He’s fragile and a little bit on the edge,” Galifianakis said. “And also, he has the capacity to be angry, so it wasn’t really a departure from real life.”
Full-bearded as ever in “Funny Story,” Galifianakis insists — teasingly of course — that he can’t shave off his mane of fame.
“I have a terrible skin affliction,” he said. “I have a port wine stain in the shape of India. No, I don’t know why the beard is such a thing. People are so focused on it. I’ve had it for 20 years. You save 15 more minutes of sleep if you’re a man and you don’t have to shave it. It’s kind of from laziness.”
The film is equipped with the right cast, including the sadly forgettable Viola Davis, yet it squanders any potentially brilliant performances in search of a middle ground between comedy and drama that it never quite finds.
At the very least, the message of “Funny Story” — to stay grounded, to not internalize our problems and to seek consolation in those around us — strikes a chord with college students. Galifianakis himself can empathize.
“I think the pressure of the college student is ridiculous,” he said. “It’s crazy and hard. When I was in school, there was a lot of pressure — more pressure than any other time in my life, which is why I never really liked school. This ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ kind of mentality that Western society has adopted — it’s bad. It’s good for people who work with ulcers. Chillout, young ones. Chill out.”
