Movie review: ‘Trainwreck' is a funny and sad hookup on the Apatow-Schumer express

Since the first time he wrote and directed a feature film, "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," Judd Apatow has mostly kept to a formula. Start funny, stay funny, get serious, then end on a funny note, all the while keeping a hint of raunchiness floating through it. He did the same thing with "Knocked Up" and "This Is 40," veering only slightly from the formula in "Funny People," which had more serious moments.

In "Trainwreck," Apatow is directing from someone else's script. He invited standup comic Amy Schumer, who's been busy writing, directing, and starring in her Comedy Central show "Inside Amy Schumer," to take a stab at writing. The Apatow formula is there, but Schumer, who also stars in it, has upped the stakes, starting funny, getting serious, returning to funny, then serious again, and finally ending funny, all the while raising the raunch factor.

The film gets off to a great start with recently divorced Gordon (Colin Quinn) trying to convince his 5- and 9-year-old daughters that monogamy isn't realistic by speaking in Barbie and Ken metaphors. It's a weirdly edgy and very funny beginning. A quick cut to "23 years later" shows the result of that and probably many more talks with their randy dad. The younger sister Kim (Brie Larson) has settled down and married, but it's not exactly a picture-perfect situation. The older sister Amy (Schumer) has never thought about settling down, and is perfectly content to be drinking booze, smoking pot, sleeping around and avoiding commitment. She is the emotional trainwreck of the title.

She's also a hardworking writer at a magazine that features personality profiles, and has an editor, Dianna (Tilda Swinton) who has good ideas about what her readers want, but is a horrible boss who basks in her own horribleness. She assigns Amy a story on Aaron (Bill Hader), a popular sports doctor, even though Amy neither knows about nor cares for sports. The assignment is just part of the editor's mean streak.

You only have to get through a few bits of plotting before the stage is set here. Amy has been spending some quality bedroom time with the big-bicepped but lunk-headed Steven (pro wrestler John Cena). Her now aging dad is facing the beginnings of multiple sclerosis, and she's taking good care of him, while her younger sister won't lift a finger to help because she's grown to hate him. Amy begins researching her story by meeting up with Aaron, who is best friends with Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (playing himself).

This isn't a film that's filled with story surprises. Once the Schumer character meets the Hader character, where else could it go other than getting them together and trying to keep them together? That's exactly what happens here as the funny-sad business plays out. But that story isn't the strong point of the film. It's everything that's going on around them that makes this fun and sometimes uncomfortable (and then fun again) to watch.

Apatow has wrangled an amazing supporting cast, and everyone gets a chance to shine. I honestly didn't know that Tilda Swinton was in the film till the credits ran at the end. She should definitely think about doing more comedy roles like this. Both John Cena and LeBron James prove that sports people can be hilarious. James comes off as a natural here, and though Cena has to work a little at it, his obvious improvising gets some of the film's biggest laughs.

But the casting doesn't stop there. There are wonderful, if brief performances by 100-year-old Norman Lloyd (you might remember him as the villainous Fry in Hitchcock's "Saboteur" or as the kindly Dr. Auschlander on "St. Elsewhere") as Norman; Daniel Radcliffe and Marisa Tomei in an odd movie-within-the-movie; and, playing themselves, the trio of actor Matthew Broderick, announcer Marv Alpert, and tennis queen Chris Evert.

The film runs too long, and it has a happy ending that's more than just a bit of a stretch. But Apatow certainly keeps that formula working, and Schumer shows a whole new side of her talent.

Ed Symkus covers movies for More Content Now.

TRAINWRECK

Written by Amy Schumer; directed by Judd Apatow

With Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Colin Quinn, Tilda Swinton, LeBron James, John Cena

Rated R