Funny People

TOP FIVE (B+) -  This is a very funny movie with an unfortunate rom-com middle act, as if Chris Rock had to compromise with the studio and somehow prove his art-film cred.

Rock plays Andre Allen, a mid-career actor who is having trouble reconnecting with his blockbuster comedy roots (he got rich wearing a costume in the "Hammy the Bear" trilogy) and is now ensnared in a reality-TV vortex, in the final days of prep for his wedding to a reality star (Gabrielle Union) on her Bravo show. Meantime, Andre consents to an interview with a free-lancer for the New York Times, Chelsea Brown (Rosario Dawson).

Unfortunately Dawson's Chelsea comes pre-packaged as the gorgeous single mom who can't find the right guy. (The movie's nadir features her dating a mope and a closet case named Brad who doesn't hide his affinity for being violated.) In fact, the several key plot twists are gimmicky, as if decided by the Committee on Hollywood Tropes. For instance, both Andre and Chelsea are recovering alcoholics; begin the countdown to one of them cracking open a bottle and having a meltdown.

Andre and Chelsea eventually hit it off. (He's wary of her at first, because the Times critic has delivered blistering hit jobs on his movies.) They wander New York City (lovingly filmed, although Rock's version is a quirky paradise where adorable black girls play jump rope on seemingly every corner), and are nimbly chatty and intimate. Suddenly Rock seems to be riffing on Richard Linklater's "Before Sunrise" trilogy; unfortunately, it's a weak imitation that doesn't have quite the ear of the source material. 

(Some are comparing this to "Annie Hall," but I didn't see that at all, thankfully. If you want a Woody Allen homage -- and a full circle to the "Before" movies -- try Julie Delpy's neurotic "2 Days in New York," in which Rock plays her husband named Mingus.)

One the true gems here is Rock playing off the hilarious J.B. Smoove, who portrays Silk, Andre's body man. The actors' rapport is exquisite, providing genuine depth to childhood friends who are still always there for each other. Smoove kills it in a late scene in which Andre, riding princely in the back seat of his town car, is going through a gift bag from his bachelor party. (Earlier, Tracy Jordan eviscerates the idea of a brother attending any event that results in a gift bag.) As Andre picks through the items, dismissing each one, Silk is there to find his own use for them. Scented candle? "I know a Mexican girl; she a candle bitch." And Silk's affinity for full-figured women leads to a quaint sight gag.

In fact, the true appeal in this movie is the talented cast, which goes quite deep in comedic chops. As a result, this is often laugh-out-loud funny.

Rock's old stand-up pals are here (Whoopi Goldberg, Adam Sandler, Jerry Seinfeld, Brian Regan, and Jim Norton pass through), but he also gives some younger comics a decent amount of screen time (SNL cast members Michael Che, Jay Pharoah and Leslie Jones populate a boisterous pivotal scene brimming with black culture references). Characters come and go as if in a variety show. Cedric the Entertainer is a local greeter/chauffeur with a vulgar penchant for prostitutes. (His delivery of a line about hotel-room coat hangers is perfect; see the punchline to the trailer below.) Kevin Hart riffs as Andre's agent. Just fleeting glimpses of talented supporting actors -- Ben Vereen, Tichina Arnold, Luis Guzman, Allan Havey -- are satisfying.

There are truly sublime moments: the rapper DMX crooning in a prison cell (while providing a bookend to a Charlie Chaplin reference early in the film); Jerry Seinfeld letting his hair down at a bachelor party (and providing a meta punchline, in his patented sing-song delivery, "Do I HAVE to say it?!"); Rock and Seinfeld bantering comfortably with Goldberg and Sandler (whose "Funny People" is a touchstone here) about marriage; an extended-family gathering, with Jordan at the center of it, in which he launches the charming "top five" running gag -- Andre and others constantly spouting a list of their favorite rappers/hip-hoppers. A touching scene, in which Andre returns to a comedy club, features genuinely funny standup material from working comics. (Andre himself tops them all with a groaner of a JFK assassination joke.) That one scene exhibits both Rock's attention to detail and his generosity with the comedy community, and it pays off as a key plot device, as well.

It is in scenes like that where Rock is in command, and his talents meld as a joke machine and a filmmaker. It is a shame that he is too often hampered by a conventional narrative. If you can survive the trite and quaint, you'll be rewarded with a comedy gift bag.

BONUS TRACK
The trailer: