Review of It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010) by Thrall T — 24 Oct 2016

It's Kind of a Funny Story, starring Keir Gilchrist, Zach Galifianakis, and Emma Roberts, shows the mind maps of teenagers and adults when life takes unexpected turns. 15 year old Craig Gilner (Gilchrist) has a family that loves him, friends to hang out with, acceptance into his dream college prep school, can't eat anything without throwing up, and is on antidepressants.

After walking into a hospital at 5am before jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge, he finds himself checked into a mental health clinic. There, he meets soon to be mentor Bobby (Galifianakis) and Noelle (Roberts), the girl with scissor cuts on her face.

His mandated week long stay is filled with unrequited love, new beginnings, and a fresh look on the reason we are alive. The movie gives a real but lighthearted representation of mental illnesses of all kinds with a fantastic performance by the supporting cast, especially Galifianakis.

All of the main characters deliver a rounded character development, something that is essential to the movie's purpose. However, the movie is not all true to the book and the main plotline is not as clear as it could be and drags in some parts.

The camera work is jumpy and scattered, not what you really want for any type of movie. Overall, I give it four out of five stars. A hopeful coming of age movie, it is, in fact, kind of a funny story.