FUNNY, MOVING and just a little cutsey-pie, nobody is going to mistake the latest dramedy from the makers of Half Nelsonand Sugarfor One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.Based on a semi- biographical novel by Brooklynite Ned Vizzini and scored by Canadian noiseniks Broken Social Scene, It's Kind of a Funny Storysees endearing eccentricities where the Diagnostic Manual might call for heavy medication.
After contemplating suicide by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge, 16-year-old Craig (the remarkable Keir Gilchrist) decides to check himself in to a psychiatric hospital. It’s all gotten too much for our teen hero: his dad is on his case to get into a Wall Street summer programme, his best friend is dating a girl they both like, his snooty school is demanding six lab reports.
Unsurprisingly, Craig soon comes to realise that his troubles aren’t half as bad as those experienced by his fellow patients. Somewhere between the pretty self-mutilator (Emma Roberts), an Egyptian roommate who refuses to leave his bed, and a mystic rabbi who once downed 100 tabs of acid, Craig discovers that life is for living, not locking out.
Playing a real-life version of the men-children in Due Dateand The Hangover, Zach Galifianakis is Craig's unlikely spiritual guide. Like Adam Sandler in Punch Drunk Love, Galifianakis embellishes his trademark tomfoolery with a dark, damaged seam and an affecting turn.
Elsewhere, the directors' use of freeze-frame narration is reasonably successful, if a little dated ( Scrubs,anyone?) and the uses they find for David Bowie and Queen's Under Pressureare decidedly dodgy. Still, even the film's rather tame, sometimes kooky presentation of mental illness is commendably demystifying.
Softer edges coupled with hip blandishments on the soundtrack – yes, The xx are here – ensure that the source material, a poignant work of young adult fiction, plays as an all-ages crowd-pleaser.
