A kinda mneh dramedy staring Zach Galifianakis as "Bobby" the depressive zen master to Keir Gilchrist's Craig - a 16 year old suffering from depression who checks himself into a psych ward after dreaming of tossing himself off the Brooklin Bridge - Funny Story basically runs a lot of stressed teen nerd movie tropes through his character and Craig hits pretty much all of them:
- massive inferiority complex and lack of self confidence.
- best friend is both better looking, smarter, athletic, and has scored the hot chick they've both known since they were kids and he secretly lusts for.
- dad's placing tons of pressure on him to succeed and guiding his progression through schools and schollarships regardless of where his son's interests actually lay.
- mom's one of those: "I'll support you in whatever you do" types who dotes on him while the father shoots him down
- younger sibling is the functional equivalent of his best friend. Only, not banging the hot chick. This time at least.
So, essentially, the setup is Better Off Dead in a mental ward with Galifianakis in the Scooter Stevens role and Emma Roberts standing in for Diane Franklin as "Craig" starts to learn how to deal with all the stress and fictional or real issues he's built up around himself that are slowly driving him insane and gets a bit out of his shell. To be fair, it should also be said that Galifianakis is actually given some acting to do and delivers pretty well the more subdued parts but, for the most part, the movie is pretty much by the numbers as these things go.
See if you're in the mood for a servicable teen flick
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