Film Review: It's Kind of a Funny Story
By Steven Pate in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 5, 2010 8:30PM
Near the beginning of It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Craig (Keir Gilchrist), our teenage protagonist who has grown disturbed by his own recurring thoughts of suicide, walks into a mental health clinic. “I want to kill myself,” he says to the person behind the counter. She hands him a clipboard and says “Fill this out.”
That barbed little joke at the Kafkaesque absurdity of the state of our health care system sets the tone for the movie: mental health issues happen, and we would do well to put them in the context of other aspects of our lives, and this means not pretending they do not exist, not speaking of them only in hushed tones, and not excepting them from the humor by which we often navigate the rest of life’s difficulties.
And It’s Kind of a Funny Story actually is kind of funny. Directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, as discussed in our interview last week, were struck by the humor of Ned Vizzini's source novel and sought foremost to preserve that in their adaptation.
Some smart casting helped in this cause. Zach Galifianakis does not quite steal the show, but his turn as the patient Craig bonds with is the most enjoyable in the film, with a blend of pathos, impertinent wit and brotherly affection hold the narrative together. Lauren Graham and Jim Gaffigan also show up as a punchline of a pair of parents, and Gilchrist’s portrayal of teenage vulnerability is at all times believable.
The action takes place over the five days that Craig must spend in the clinic once he has committed himself. Some of the more severe cases make for a bad first impression, and he feels he does not belong among the schizophrenics, much less sleeping next to a roommate straight out of a Beckett novel. “A lot of people feel that way at first,” the doctor tells him. “Give it a little time.”
Craig uses the time to explore a relationship with a teenage girl (also residing in the clinic) and discovering outlets of self-expression. One of the film’s highlights is a Gilchrist and Galifianakis’ imitation of Freddie Mercury and David Bowie in a funny rendition of “Under Pressure.”
The circumstances that have driven Craig to calling a suicide hot-line turn out to be real enough, such as pressure to excel at a highly competitive high school and confusion over his relationships to his friends and love interest and parents who are out of touch. Filmmakers Boden and Fleck manage to dramatize Craig’s putting of these issues into perspective without trivializing them, and the result is a (only) kind of funny, if somewhat slight, feel-good coming of age comedy. Some will want this movie to be more than it is, but as a teen movie told from the perspective of a teen and a positive portrayal of mental health issues, it is worth a look.