Funny People – Funny Morals?
This past weekend I went to the movies and saw Funny People with my boyfriend, HNB. Was it good you ask? Hilarious. It was a bit long, but between Seth Rogan, Adam Sandler, Jason Schwartzman, Jonah Hill, and other comical cast, they deliver exactly what you’d want in a Sunday afternoon bro-mance film.
Now I’m sure you all know the premise of the film. But if you live under a rock, I can give you a recap: the film features a bunch of characters who are aspiring comedians and actors. Sandler is an established comedy actor, and finds out that he is dying with cancer. He connects with Rogan and they both go on a little journey learning about fame, fortune, life, disease, love and what is important in life. Horray bro-mance movies.
The reason I talking about this post today is because there is a turn in the story line that puts the audience in an interesting place. The main character is a famous comedy actor, George Simmons (Adam Sandler), and when he finds out he is dying he tries to re-connect with an old love, Laura (Leslie Mann). The thing is, Laura is married. But as the story is painted, you find out that Laur’s husband, Clark (Eric Banna), has been cheating on her for years. And not to mention that there are several scenes where Clark openly disrespects Laura condescendingly. In one scene, Laura teary eyed confesses to George that she loves him more than her husband and wishes that she never would have married Clark.
It’s from this point that the complication begins to weave itself in my mind. As a viewer, I felt incredibly guilty cheering for George in his pursuit of Laura. Part of me wanted him to get her, to love her and have them ride together into the sunset. But the other part of me looked at her beautiful children, her home, her family, and her life and just wanted to scream at George to stop. To leave Laura alone and let her figure out her own life. To not satisfy himself in his need for her, and not destroy her family in the process.
It was an interesting moral split. And the story doesn’t end there – there are 146 minutes of weaving the complicated web, and then leaving you with an adequate sense of closure.
But my question is this: Do you feel bad rooting for the douche bag husband to get cheated on by the beautiful wife? Or do you want the main character to loose so the less popular character wins?
Either way, kudos to the writer, Judd Apatow, for keeping me engaged and divided throughout the course of the film.
What do you think?
I think it all breaks down into a simple formula. Yeah, her husband is a jerk, right. If someone is a jerk and is cheating on you, then you can leave them. To me, if you choose not to leave, you can’t cheat.
Cheating to get back at someone is not an acceptable form of revenge. Leaving is. Getting a new life is. But, you’ve got to break free before you move on.
If you don’t, I’d agrue that your new relationship won’t last. At all.
hmmm well two wrongs don;t make a right. the lady has every right to leave her husband who is a douche bag. but like the other commenter said she needs to break free from her relationship before she moves on. or she could fight for her marriage. but in the end sometimes even the good guy loses out on something that could have been great, and that was a risk he took…
What God has joined together, let man not separate . . . I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery (Matthew 19:6, 9)
I agree with the comments posted prior to mine. If the douce bag was just a non-cheating douce bag then I would feel worse about rooting for Sandler. I don’t know what happens in the end cause I haven’t seen the movie, but it sounds like Laura needs to put on her “big girl pants” and do some serious thinking. Biblically speaking, she’s got a legit reason for divorce but she needs to decide what road she wants to travel down and do it. So yeah, my romanticism screams “LAURA JUST PICK GEORGE!!!” But if Clark decided he wanted to change, he apologized profusely, did something amazing to make it up to her like buy her a room full of flowers and really showed his undying love for her… I would be ok with them staying together. In fact, I think it would take an extremely strong woman to stay in the crappy circumstances she’s in and not take the easy way out, so it would be a bit impressive.
Anyways, all this talk reminds me of Grey’s Anatomy season 2 episode 5. You can watch it if you’re bored, although I think this is one you’ve already seen this one.
http://www.cucirca.com/2007/01/17/greys-anatomy-season-2-episode-5-bring-the-pain/
haha, love it!
This is why I love it’s in a movie and not real life. I wonder if we’d dialogue this option as much if Laura and Clark were our friends…actual people and families that we have a sunday afternoon BBQ with.
I was rooting for her to leave her husband since he was cheating and kind of mean. I think cheating sucks but I didn’t think much of her doing it since he was doing it already. I figured he’d already destroyed that marriage. BUT George was starting to act a lil shady during the CATS scene so I didn’t think that really seemed like a good option for her and her kids either. I think it ended in a pretty good way.
Jay – way to just lay things straight! I read your comment and thought, “Duh, of course that’s the answer…”
I think the part that stood out to me the most was merely the fact that a movie could lend me to be that divided for most of the length of the film. Like Megan said, in the end George started acting crappy and the writer managed to get everyone out relatively unskathed.
However, the fact that in real life I’d NEVER consider rooting for the cheaters, it was interesting that sitting in the movie chair I couldn’t really decide what to vote for.
Like Dana said, I’m glad this isn’t real people that we know in life! Like I’d mentioned earlier, I suppose this is just good props to the writer for being able to create a story and scene where you can make even the most soild of people re-think what they know to be true.
I know it’s been said, but:
Rooting for the bad one to get cheated on is morally abhorrent.
Rooting for the bad one to get left is morally peachy.
Jay’s view gets my vote, too. Moral ambiguity appears to be a mainstay in the media. Don’t get me started about Mama Mia!