Movie review – “Funny People” (2009) ****

Half a masterpiece. So much of it is wonderful, it’s a shame they couldn’t trim and shape it a bit more. And for all the whiff of reality that permeates every frame there’s still a sequence where someone races to the airport at the end. I think it goes a bit wonky in the second half; Leslie Mann and Eric Bana have talent but aren’t quite good enough actors to manage that delicate balancing act of comedy and pathos which the first half does so well. They're both too broad. Adam Sandler is sensational – funny, believable, self loathing. Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Jason Schwatzmann are brilliant as is the female comic. So many great bits, though: the stuff with the doctor, the by-play of the comics, the crappy sitcom and movies they make, Sandler picking up two girls at a gig.