I’m biased when it comes to Judd Apatow films. I think the guy and his band of genitalia-joking, go-for-the-broad-stroke-joke-every-time characters can do no wrong. Provided Apatow writes in the charming disposition of the lovable average guy who’s just trying to make a living and stay afloat but keeps getting caught in the awkward moment, like in Knocked Up, or in 40-Year-Old Virgin, or like the high-school boys of Freaks and Geeks; always the little guy overcoming figurative sand in his face to succeed in getting the girl. Funny People loses a little of that charm, though it keeps up with the Apatow brand of humor just fine. For the first forty-five minutes that is. The last hour and forty-five minutes though had me squirming because it was so darn long, with no resolution in sight and an ending that just left me worried for the future of Apatow films.

Funny People is the third film written and directed by Judd Apatow and this one stars (among other Apatow regulars) his best friend Adam Sandler, Apatow’s wife Leslie Mann, and Apatow’s daughters, and because of these very close people I feel Apatow had a hard time editing the film down to what would have been a more appropriate ninety minutes. Even two hours would have been fine considering the more dramatic story-line we get here in Funny People than we’ve had from other Apatow scripts.

And after seeing movies like Virgin, Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Pineapple Express, The Dewey Cox Story, Anchor Man, Superbad—basically the comedy genre of pornirony we’ve seen develop in the last five years—these try-to-shock-you, “I can’t believe he just said that” laughs seem to be getting old. Which Apatow should be careful of. He may need to go a more nostalgic route and give us no-holds-barred desecrated jokes in the next few films just to keep his footing on the mark.

He lets up just a tad in Funny People to allow Adam Sandler’s character, comedian/actor George Simmons, to kind of go the Click way, like Scrooge, to sort of see his life in a different light once doctors tell him he has a rare fatal blood disease. In doing that soul search, this-could-be-the-end kind of thing, Simmons tries to make peace with himself, his family, and an old ex-girlfriend he still has a thing for but who is married now with two kids. It’s really not funny, it’s serious. And it leads me to think that maybe when Apatow titled the film he meant Funny People as in these people act “funny,” as in abnormal. The fact they are comedians or comedic writers and actors is just a coincidence.

But if that were the case then Apatow should have poured it on, gone over the top with uncharacteristic, anomalous behavior with these characters. And when he doesn’t it disproves my theory that Funny People is suppose to mean what I think it means. Instead, it’s just what we’re lead to believe it means, that this is a film about comedians, i.e. Funny People. It’s vaguely reminiscent of Punchline, that other serious film about comics starring Tom Hanks and Sally Field where we’re suppose to believe that all really funny people are sad and lonely inside.

Funny People also stars Seth Rogan who faired the best from all of the roles here, as stand-up wannabe Ira Wright but not even his character showed a true arc of development and change in this film. Things changed FOR him, he didn’t change a thing for himself. Outside of a short two minute conversation he has with a love interest named Daisy, played by Aubrey Plaza, he shows no real development. His character should be the main interest in Funny People, like William Holden’s Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard. He should be the person who gets caught up in the life of a famous star, who learns that fame and fortune isn’t all it’s cracked up to be instead of the guy whose story just becomes secondary to that of Simmons, or is only used to give exposition and insight into Simmons’ life.

This film also failed to use the talents of one of the best cinematographers alive, Steven Spielberg’s right hand man Janusz Kaminski. Funny People showed no vision with photography or use of space in interpreting character thought or mood, and the lighting for this dramedy was always high key, bright like comedies are. No characters in shadows or darkness to help change the mood. Serious moments played in bright lights where everything is at the same exposure, always suggesting subconsciously that this is the equivalent of a Jim Carey movie like Liar Liar, or Dumb and Dumber. And it’s not. Instead, maybe it should have been shot more like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (photographed by Ellen Kuras). Apatow is no Michel Gondry, however, not that he should be but that maybe in subject matters like this it would behoove Judd to experiment a little. Even the greenest, most uninformed filmgoer knows there’s something fascinating about the photography in The Graduate that helps interpret Benjamin Braddock’s inner most feelings.

Sandler, on the other hand, really shows some decent talent as a serious actor. He’s done it before in Punch Drunk Love and in Spanglish, but I believe his experience on the set of Reign On Me and Click have improved his acting. He is at times superb in Funny People and it is a shame that it is the direction and script here that fault him.

I like to exit a really good movie and feel a sense of renewal; to feel that no matter how dire circumstances are in the world that after a really good movie I can truly seize the day, that there is nothing I can’t do—either because of the film’s enlightening or escapist nature, through form or subject matter can it win me over. And I felt that way during the first forty-five minutes of Funny People. I anticipated walking out feeling really good. Funny People ruined that somewhere down the line. It hammered and chiseled away at that sense of escape until it was a block of cold meaningless metal. I don’t know what happened, but it’s just not Apatow. Maybe the DVD commentary will make it better.

Rated R with language and really funny bits by Rogan, Jonah Hill, RZA, and Jason Schwartzman. Running time is a box office killing two hours and twenty-six minutes (though it’s number one with $23.4 million in ticket sales for the weekend of July 31st through August 2nd)