It's Kind of a Funny Story

Remember back in the good, old days when Hollywood used to give their inpatients lobotomies? I do. For all you softer, gentler moviegoers, here's It's Kind of a Funny Story, and it is.

For everybody who has seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Zach Galifianakis' performance as Bobby will inevitably bring back memories of Jack Nicholson as McMurphy. Sadly, I am not sure if that is good enough.

Unlike 'One Flew', however, this ward-based romantic comedy also tries serving up a fresh, hot bowl of drama on the side, with little success I might add.

Now it's not the cast or even the crew that are to blame for this mishap. In fact, Keir Gilchrist and Emma Roberts do a pretty good job here in their roles and Zach Galifianakis definitely brings the laughs. No, I believe the fault lies with the script. There are just not enough opportunities for drama to develop here because the film is too busy trying to be indie, with the hand-drawn animation and the teenage monologues/ flashbacks.

Now that's not to say that this movie isn't funny. It is. Zach Galifianakis is a brilliant comedian who has the ability to derive laughs from practical, totally unfunny situations and that is what most of the humor consists of in this film. However, when this film tries to be dramatic as well, it totally destroys everything this movie was going for.

Overall, this is a funny, entertaining movie that has the right heart, just not the right script. I believe that if Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck had focused more on the story and less on trying to be indie then this could have definitely accomplished everything it is desperately trying to be.