Angst-filled 16-year-old Craig (Keir Gilchrist) has ridden his bike to Brooklyn Bridge for no other reason than to jump off. He lays his bike down and starts clambering up onto the bridge when all of a sudden his family, overbearing mum Lynn (Lauren Graham), busy businessman dad George (Jim Gaffigan) and child prodigy sister Alissa (Dana DeVestern) start asking him what he’s going to do with his bike, “I don’t care about my bike, I’m killing myself!”.

Waking up in a cold sweat after yet another suicidal dream, Craig takes himself to Argenon hospital where he announces to the nurse that he wants to kill himself. Although expecting a quick-fix, Craig ends up accidentally admitting himself into a five-day minimum stay at an adult psyche ward…

Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s ‘It’s Kind of a Funny Story’, an adaptation of Ned Vizzini’s book of the same title, is a comedic and heart-warming story about learning to make lemonade when life gives you lemons. Aside from being infatuated with his best friend’s girlfriend Nia (played by Zoë Kravitz) and being best friends with the boy who is good at everything (Aaron played by Thomas Mann), Craig is a teenager who admits to having no obvious problems but who has felt the pressures of life from a very young age where flashbacks show him comparing himself to Mozart, who, his dad reminds him, composed his first piece aged four.

Since the teen ward is under renovations, Craig and fellow teen Noelle (Emma Roberts) who soon becomes Craig’s resident love interest are stuck with the adults. It is in this ward that Craig learns the secrets to keeping a woman happy (apparently all it takes is to say “I love you”) and that “if you’re not busy being born, you’re busy dying”, words of wisdom that clueless Craig accredits to Bobby (played perfectly by The Hangover’s Zach Galifianakis) rather than Bob Dylan. The colourful characters of the ward include Soloman (Daniel London) a Jewish man who never recovered from an acid trip rollerblading session, Muqtada (Bernard White) an agoraphobic Egyptian man and of course Bobby, the curiously normal man who takes Craig under his wing.

The freeze stills, camera angles and artwork used throughout the film highlight the imaginative cinematography alongside the high-profile cast who do not disappoint, especially when performing an amusing rendition of Queen’s ‘Under Pressure’. Funny, fresh and heart-warming, ‘It’s Kind of a Funny Story’ is well, kind of a funny story.