The most succinct way to describe directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s drama/comedy It’s Kind Of A Funny Story is with two words: Boy, Interrupted. Depressed sixteen-year-old Craig (United States of Tara’s Keir Gilchrist) is seriously considering suicide, and “accidentally” checks himself into the mental ward of his local New York City hospital. During a mandatory five-day observation stay, Craig discovers his passion for art, falls in love with pretty, self-cutting Noelle (Emma Roberts), befriends the wise, nutty Bobby (Zach Galifianakis) and helps everyone in the ward – except the Hasidic Jew acidhead and old schizophrenic who keeps shouting to himself.
It’s Kind Of A Funny Story is a male, modern take on James Mangold’s Girl, Interrupted, but at times thinks it’s a teenage version of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. The mental ward in this movie is populated by every colorful nutjob cliché co-writers Fleck and Boden (working from a novel by Ned Vizzini) have seen in other movies, presided over by a stern but sympathetic head psychiatrist (the excellent Viola Davis). Besides the subtly manic-depressive Bobby, there’s the resident transvestite, a middle-aged Egyptian man who never leaves his bed, the hipster ward manager (a refreshingly non-jittery Jeremy Davies), and an old man so zonked out he can only stand like a statue, holding a ping-pong paddle.
Despite the rampant clichés, It’s Kind Of A Funny Story is still entertaining in a few different, clashing ways. Keir Gilchrist is essentially playing a straight version of his gay, jazz-loving United States of Tara alter-ego, but he proves surprisingly charismatic and unforced in his debut as a leading man. He is helped immeasurably by Galifianakis, who proves with this film that he can pull off a real character beyond the Bearded Wingnut he’s been playing since his breakout role in The Hangover.
Still, the first act is tough to stay objective through. Craig is depressed and suicidal, and admits in a voiceover narration that he has no reason to be. He’s a privileged kid with a businessman father (Jim Gaffigan) and a hyper-comforting mother (Lauren Graham), an overachieving best friend (Thomas Mann) who is dating the girl he’s been obsessing over (Zoe Kravitz). It’s just all too much! Well, it’s a bit hard to muster sympathy for this whiny, pampered brat until the film’s tone evens out. It’s not quite sure if it’s a dark comedy or a dramatic satire. Scenes such as Bobby’s violent meltdown after a disastrous interview to enter a group home co-exist uneasily with several more fantastic sequences (fourth-wall-shattering glimpses of Craig’s life, an animated trip into his drawings, and a fun, rousing fantasy lip-sync of Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure,” with the cast decked out in glitter-rock regalia on a fantasy stage).
The performances are very good, with everyone hitting the right notes. The plot holes are another matter – this is one moth-eaten story, starting with the fact that a sixteen-year-old kid was able to get himself admitted to a mental ward without his parents’ knowledge (they find out after the fact). Then it seems the teen ward is “undergoing renovations,” allowing for a co-ed atmosphere… in a New York hospital psychiatric wing? Doubtful.
We’re left wondering how five days in a mental ward could really cure anyone – but maybe that’s the point: there wasn’t anything wrong with Craig in the first place. Then why watch? Well, it was a pretty fun trip, with the best, most honest Zach Galifianakis performance to date making it worthwhile.
7 out of 10