It’s Kind of a Funny Story (Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, 2010): USA

Reviewed by Richard Feilden.  Viewed at Camino Real Cinema, Goleta.

A suicidal teenager’s woes might not seem like obvious source material for a romantic comedy, but in adapting Ned Vizzini’s novel, that’s where writer/director team Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have gone with It’s Kind of a Funny Story.  It’s kind of a hit and miss affair, but it makes the target often enough for it to be worth a look.

Craig (Keir Gilchrist, who I suspect will be doomed to a life of Justin Long comparisons) is a 16 year with a little too much stress in his life.  A school for overachievers, a father who doesn’t spend quite enough time with him, and a girl who doesn’t really notice him, have him struggling to suppress suicidal thoughts, as well as keep his dinner down.  So he checks himself into a psychiatric ward.  There he discovers that, due to renovations, he will be bunking with the grown-ups.

Of course, being on a psych ward he meets up with a group of kooky (but safe – this is a teen comedy, not One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) patients and, this being a romance, one of them is an age-appropriate girl, Noelle (Emma Roberts).  Being the only two teenagers on the ward (they must have scheduled the renovations due to an outbreak of teen sanity) they immediately embark on an awkward mating ritual.  Soul searching and hilarity ensue.  Kind of.

Let’s get the bad out of the way first of all.  Gilchrist and Noelle don’t make a particularly interesting couple.  In Gilchrist’s case it’s down to some uneven acting.  Unless he’s given a strong emotional drive to hang his performance on, he comes across as rather wooden.  In Robert’s case, it’s more a lack of screen time and material to really dig into.  She’s on the ward due to self-harming, but aside from giving the character a reason to be there, the script never approaches this serious issue.  This must surely be the only psychiatric ward where, when a girl who self harms becomes distraught, no one minds her locking herself in her room.

The same is true for almost everyone on the ward.  The conditions that keep the various patients in the hospital rarely manifest themselves as anything other than an excuse for a quick joke.  From the drug-addled table tennis players to Gilchrist’s projectile vomiting (are the film makers so desperate for a laugh that they have to rely on such things?  This is slumming it in Miss March territory), illness seem to exist to conjure up a cheap laugh, and the film suffers.

With that dealt with, it’s time to turn to the highlights of the film.  The first is the visuals.  From a beautiful opening shot travelling through a suspension bridge through the dream/imagination sequences that pepper the film, it’s really quite beautiful.  The film makes abrupt stylistic changes whenever a fantasy sequence commences.  The highlight is a minimalist animation that takes us on a flight through an imaginary cityscape, but others include a glam-rock production of Queen/Bowie’s Under Pressure and a 70s inflected memory of a less complicated youth.  Occasionally the unmotivated hand-held camera work become a little distracting, but overall the film is a visual treat.

The real saving grace of the film however is the performance given by Zach Galifianakis.  As Bobby, he guides Craig through his days in the hospital, while the boy helps him come to terms with some of his own issues – issues that have apparently flummoxed the highly trained staff.  By turns comedic and tragic, Galifianakis brings a level of subtlety to the role that I simply hadn’t expected to see.  Like Jim Cary, it may be that his best work will be found in the more serious roles I hope to see him take in the future.  It will be a waste if he sticks to the ‘crazy guy with the wild beard’ routine.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story is definitely a mixed bag, but if you’re willing to put up with the bad, the good will reward your patience.  If you keep your expectations low, the parts that surprise you will definitely be kind of worth it.

In the interest of full disclosure, It’s Kind of a Funny Story was screened free for members of the press and the public.