It's Kind of a Funny Story

The title basically sums it up.

This little review deal may sound a little over-critical, so I want to note beforehand that I did not hate this movie. I rather enjoyed myself while watching it and gave it a 3-star "Like It" on NetFlix :p I just really feel like talking about it because I was anticipating it so much and because I think it had so much potential. So this will largely be me stating things that I wish I'd seen, not so much things I think they did "wrong."

(There will now be spoilers. Beware!)

To sum up my grievances, this movie, in my eyes, went no where and didn't support its point. Let me explain before you disagree. This is a movie about a teenager who finds himself depressed and suicidal, checks himself into a mental ward in the hospital, makes friends, meets a girl, and then goes on to fix everything (almost, and this is a good almost). Ok, so you know what I mean when I say potential: When the second clause of the summary sentence has "suicidal" in it, there is potential. And yes, you will all be taking into account my devoted love for pain, sadness and tragedy -- BUT that isn't what this is about. Entirely...

Anyway. Taking into account that brief summary, here's are some general routes that I think a movie with this plot could take, not necessarily THIS movie, but just a movie with this plot:

-The Comedy Factor. Hilarious characters, humorous acting, ridiculous situations and a happy ending. Now, this isn't so much my most favored film style, but it's certainly a worthy one and I'll never call an actually-funny movie with a happy ending a bad movie. So, what we got in It's Kind of a Funny Story were some elements in this direction - It was funny throughout. Zach Galifianakis is truly, and subtly hilarious. The other patients in the ward are a classic crazy-pot of characters, but those characters remain two-dimensional until the bitter end. Keir Gilchrist (Craig) has an underlying humor to him that shines past his dull (which I assume was an intentional choice) appearance. So, in the end, this film succeeds rather well in the comedy department, with the only forthcoming issue being that it was reaching into a series of other genres and trying to be a good deal more than just a comedy.

-This is a sad movie. A 16-year old boy finds his life far too stressful, which can and does happen, and ponders ending his own life. He then meets other tragically beautiful characters (Bobby and Noelle) who are also self-destructive and don't appreciate their lives as any human with the potential for greatness should. This. Is where this movie could have become so much more. Let's start with Noelle, because I found her potential for phenomenal effect so magnetic. The first time we see her up close in the film, it's revealed to us that she bears scars on her wrist and cheek. Awesome. (Ok, not awesome, but you know what I mean. Real. Tragic. Alive. Worth a second and third look. Awesome.) But that is the absolute cut-off for Noelle's intrigue..... Yeah, she takes the role of the potential girlfriend character that puts the protagonist in uncomfortable situations because she likes to watch him squirm and pull him out of his shell. But never once do we mention HER. She CUTS herself, but she's completely in control and never poses a single concern for the entire duration of this movie. She should have broken down or had some sort of episode or ANY PROBLEM OF ANY SORT! Even when Craig crushes her by announcing his love to his whore of a best-friend's-girlfriend RIGHT in front of her, she just gets a little ticked off and forgives him like it's nothing. If you're going to make a movie about a psych ward, give it some color.
So that made me sad. The rest of the characters are hopeless and will be in the crazy-bin until the end of time, excluding only Craig, who is obviously going to be fine all along (which is a fine obviousness, because hey, he's a teenager, and if teens are anything, they're dynamic.) and Bobby. So Bobby. Bobby is a good character and I am glad he was in this film and I am glad Zach Galifianakis is playing him. Bobby has tried to kill himself 6 times. Bobby is an important father figure to Craig, but is completely incapable of imparting any of his advice to himself. Bobby has a fit of anger and Bobby supposedly never gets better. Bobby is ambiguous and not very hopeful. And he also creates what I think I can call my favorite moment in the movie. He tells Craig that he's got everything and everything ahead of him -- that if he could have Craig's life for just... one day... he would do so much. And that painful, beautiful, hopeful line is what the whole movie is about:

-Living. This coincides with the sad. Because life is pain. And pain is beauty. So life is beautiful. This movie is about Craig learning that he can live his life and be happy. So they did this pretty well in the movie -the living part, not so much the pain part. In fact, Craig hardly ever shows any cracks or any hurt. He's pretty dull, and then he's pretty happy. Not to mention being just way too good at random things for no reason, like painting and singing. AND he's too damn comfortable around everyone else way too quickly and way too easily. He did not seem like a depressive, stressed-to-the-brink, suicidal teen.
One could argue that that's the point - that he's a teen overreacting and this is a story of his maturing. Fair enough, but he never realizes that. In his eyes, he was completely suicidal, then he becomes a non-suicidal superstar.

So, ok. They were doing good things with this, but I found myself wanting for one or all of those good things to develop a lot more. I just wanted there to be more meat to this movie, more grit. Just because it's kind of a funny story doesn't mean it has to be a ceaselessly predictable and nice movie.

This was a pretty movie. Aesthetically, it was beautiful. It had that nice Hollywood-indie look that's so "in" right now, and which I generally like. I guess I'm not really a fan of crafted looking characters in a movie that's claiming and trying to be indie, but I get it. Box office - not alienating the masses - so on. Fair enough. Oh and the shallow focus thing they love to do really made some scenes just amazing looking. However, the fact that they were using that same shallow focus in just about every shot throughout the entire movie was starting to get on my nerves. At first I chalked it up to a cinematographic attempt to represent Craig's subjective state of mind. But Craig didn't have a terribly subjective state of mind, as it turns out, and this wasn't really the type of movie that was going for subtle symbolic/representational camera effects.

Umm.... other little things. Like Nia. K, so she's clearly and uninteresting bitch-whore once we actually spend a scene with her. Like... in all the most convenient ways. Ok great! But then... why did Craig have a crush on her in the first place? (I mean I get that he himself was completely uninteresting until the events in this movie took place, so one could use that to explain his thing for her, but in the end, I just felt like they made her way too conveniently 2-dimensional)

Yeah, you know. That's the word I want to use to sum up this movie. Convenient. And to me, convenient means safe. I don't think great movies are spawned from safe. And I didn't walk into this one looking for a feel-good movie, knowing it could so definitely have been so much more.


Ok, so that's my overly critical rant. Now for the parts I liked, and there were parts I REALLY liked! For the most part, the things that really did hit me in a positive way were little moments here or there that I thought were really well acted. Sadly, Emma Roberts (Noelle) gets none of these parts. She was really good at looking insanely interesting and putting on piercing expressions, but she went nowhere. Like, I said, the Bobby bit about living your life because you've got everything to live for was really well placed, well delivered, and I feel like I got chills at that point. So that part I liked. I also really liked the very last shot in the movie. Because after Craig gets it all, finds out he has the perfect life now and he can do anything, he doesn't just accept that, he goes out and appreciates life. So we see him riding him bike, clearly feeling - happiness, pain, overwhelming emotion, and we see him on the verge of tears just as the movie cuts to black. That was a good shot.

So, as my NetFlix will tell you... a disappointed 3 out of 5 stars. The trailer makes this film out to be this exciting, screaming, up-and-down, emotionally charged roar of a movie. The characters needed more character. The plot needed less Hollywood predictability. And the feel needed more of an intriguing edge or threat. I just needed more!