Film Reviews

It's Kind of a Funny Story

• Rating:
• Director: Ryan Fleck
• Starring: Emma Roberts
• Details: US / 101mins 12A

It's not. It's not even kind of funny. Charming? Sure. A cute ending that's tough to resist? Check. Brave enough to raise topics rarely seen in teen movies? Yep. A flippant nature in addressing those important issues? Sadly, yes. However, it's something that they're being raised at all in mainstream cinema.
Craig (Gilchrist, The United States Of Tara) is more than just down in the dumps: in love with his best friend's girlfriend, Nia (Kravitz), for some time now, and panicking at the thought of not making it into summer school where he'll be groomed for a top college, Craig's thoughts have turned to suicide. Checking himself into an institution for a five-day observation, Craig finds kindred spirits in Bobby (Galifianakis) and Lynn (Roberts) and learns that he's not alone with these dark thoughts.
After writing and directing Half Nelson and Sugar, that little-known 2008 baseball movie that really is one of the best sports movies around, hopes were high for the writing-directing team of Boden and Fleck's next outing, but It's Kind Of A Funny Story fails to give its subject the weight it deserves. The movie isn't dismissive of Craig's plight - far from it in fact - but it lacks the soul searching and depth the sickness warrants; if you're going to make a movie about teen depression and suicide, why not go the whole hog and be honest? It should be darker. It should be revealing. But It's Kind Of A Funny Story takes the other road: the suicidal Galifianakis weighs in with his typical oddball turn and self-harmer Roberts is there for love interest reasons only. The dialogue-heavy script doesn't flow the way it should and the sequences fail to join the dots to make a coherent story.
The relationships could have done with some work too: We never get to know Nia so it's unclear why Craig is so infatuated with her, and we're told that Craig's father is a difficult man who puts his son under terrible pressure, but no one seems to have told Jim Gaffigan, who plays him in a quasi Galifianakis turn. But Gilchrist, Galifianakis and Roberts make a fun trio to watch, even though they are forced to keep their characters bubbly.
Despite it's good intentions - and good intentions can go a long way - It's Kind Of A Funny Story is just not the movie it wants to be and all the quirky narration in the world can't save it.

Review by Gavin Burke