The movie focuses on Craig’s battle with his depression, how the others around him help and how he helps them too, nothing new for this kind of story.  The movie is not a straight comedy, but more of a comedy drama.  Boden and Fleck have done dramas before and they seem to have a difficult time delivering the comedy aspects of the movie.  Comedy is not easy to deliver, so it could be their inexperience with the genre or maybe only one of them should have been directing instead of two.  Not everyone can be the Cohen Brothers.  Usually directing teams don’t work out well for a movie.

The movie is based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Ned Vizzini written about the time he checked himself into a hospital for depression.  Boden and Fleck were hired to write a screenplay based on the book and to direct.  They do a good job capturing the drama aspects of it and come up with some great visuals in the movie too, quite an accomplishment given the subject matter.  They do have trouble keeping focus on the subplot involving Bobby.  Given that Zack Galifianakis is the biggest star draw in this movie, more focus should have been paid attention to his character.  The movie is rated PG-13 for mature thematic issues, sexual content, drug material and language.