'It's Kind of a Funny' Movie

by Brett Parker

It’s tricky business to make a dramedy regarding mental patients at a mental hospital. If you make the patients too broad of goofy comic caricatures, then you risk dealing a great insult to those actually suffering mental disorders. If you make things too deadly serious, then you risk basking the audience in a gloomy downer. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest pretty much wrote the book on how this balancing act is done. Now comes It’s Kind of a Funny Story, a film that pulls off this balancing act so carefully that it doesn’t even try to go for the jugular. It tiptoes between depression and hilarity while attempting to dish out a strong cinematic dose of optimism. That we’re able to accept this dose without dismissing it cynically demonstrates the effect of the film.

As the film opens, we meet Craig (Keir Gilchrist), a young high schooler from New York City in the midst of great emotional anguish. He feels enormous pressure from his father (Jim Gafigan) to get into a great college or be branded a failure. He finds that he’s hopelessly in love with Nia (Zoe Kravitz), the girlfriend of his over-achieving best friend, Aaron (Thomas Mann). He is more or less consumed by the existential angst that puts its grip on most teenagers at some point in their young lives. Feeling extremely anxious, Craig contemplates suicide but suspects that’s not the answer. He decides to turn to a local Brooklyn hospital for help.

Craig is under the impression that the hospital will simply give him extra-strength meds and send him gingerly on his way, yet he is surprised to discover that he must stay in the hospital’s psych ward for a five-day period so he can be properly evaluated. It’s in this kooky ward in which Craig meets a chorus line of colorful eccentrics. His roommate hasn’t left his bed or room for months. A schizophrenic man howls endlessly throughout the building. A drugged-out rabbi begs endlessly to keep the noise down. Craig even finds a mentor of sorts in the form of Bobby (Zach Galifianakis), a shaggy depressive who seems slightly more level-headed than the other patients (not by much).

Bobby decides to show Craig the ropes of the mental ward, which include excitement-free Ping Pong games and dreams of an epic Pizza Party. While in the ward, the patients help Craig discover what a special individual he is. Activities revolved around arts, crafts, and music reveals that he has more hidden talents then he gives himself credit for. He also gains confidence through the affections of Noelle (Emma Roberts), another troubled teenager occupying the ward. They begin a fragile romance based on a kind of wounded sympathy. It’s though her sweetness, and the ward’s offbeat brand of encouragement, that Craig is able to take on his inner-demons.

Writer-Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson, Sugar) have etched out a name for themselves in the indie-world through raw character studies that showcase complex human types with unflinching honesty. Their work is celebrated for its avoidance of clichés and formulas as it allows the behavior of its subjects to reach their logical conclusions without resorting to melodrama. This time, adapting from a semi-autobiographical novel by Ned Vizzini, they appear to be reveling in formulaic territory to show off a hipster creativity their earlier films were immune to. We know from their earlier work that they are fully capable of making a vivid and authentic portrayal of an actual mental ward, yet they decide to play with some colorful exuberance here, just to show they can do it if they want to. While the scenes in the ward are fairly grounded, Boden and Fleck treat us to some zestful visuals packed with an appealing playfulness. We see an animated cityscape within Craig’s wild imagination as he draws out a map of his own city on paper and, in the film’s most fun sequence, we witness a dream sequence where the patients imagine themselves in a Glammed-Out performance of David Bowie & Queen’s “Under Pressure.” Of course, this material could still work in a down-to-earth, subtle manner, but these wild strokes help flesh out the hidden optimism waiting to burst out of the ward’s inherent dreariness.

Alongside the creative visual strokes, one of the best reasons to see the film is the revelatory performance by new-age goofball, Zach Galifianakis. The key to Galifianakis’ gifts thus far can only be described as a sublime subtlety. He’s one of the few performers who can generate a large response from doing next-to-nothing. To regard his oafish shell and laid-back demeanor point blank is surprisingly appealing. Here Galifianakis uses that gift to hint at the troubled depths of Bobby, a mysterious depressive too deep in his own turmoil to return to the wife and daughter that despair achingly over him. Bobby can be a level-headed voice of reason or a sealed bottle of rage, sometimes within the same moment. Indeed, he has a shocking display of hostility in the ward’s library in which he needs to be restrained by numerous staff members. Galifianakis’ employs his subtlety to convey all of Bobby’s complexities quite superbly. He tones down his goofy shenanigans to a certain degree but connects strongly with the tragic depths lurking just beneath Bobby’s surface. It’s an eye-opening performance, one that suggests Galifianakis could effortlessly handle meatier dramatic roles in the future.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story is essentially a teen angst picture set within the confines of a quirky mental ward. Through the vessel of Keir Gilchrist, who is like Jesse Eisenberg trapped within a young Keanu Reeves, we regard the everyday plights of the teenage emotional experience, which can seem like such devastating travesties as teenagers actually experience them. Craig goes through the usual motions of dealing with parental pressure, romantic yearning, and personal inadequacy before his journey makes him realize that he should learn to believe in himself and the joys of life. Boden and Fleck have both cited a John Hughes influence on this film and indeed employ Hughes’ device of dissecting the roots of a high schooler’s angst and ultimately suggesting that sunny optimism and being true to thy self is the best way to combat it. The film’s sly joke is that a mental ward is a cathartic place to take a break from being an American teenager, a joke that feels more true the more you think about it.

When all is said and done, It’s Kind of a Funny Story feels like more of a slight enterprise then it probably intends to be. Its insights are appreciated, but not highly original. The jokes are charming, if not uproariously hilarious. Plus I was kind of annoyed at the way the narrative condescends the formulaic ending while it embodies it. Yet I couldn’t help but admire the smile-inducing sunshine the filmmakers pulled from what could’ve been a troubling downer. A lot of sunniness packaged in the movies nowadays can come across as transparent and manipulative, so it’s nice to see a movie earn it through effective character development and simple emotional honesty. Like Zach Galifianakis himself, you can’t help but be charmed by the silliness.