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Nov 12, 2015 By Julia Bembenek Web Exclusive

All anyone is looking for in Alison Bagnall’s Funny Bunny is a little bit of understanding. Eugene is a door-to-door childhood obesity awareness “educator” when he meets Titty, a teenage recluse living in an empty mansion and funneling a seemingly limitless amount of cash to Ginger, a cam-girl whose schtick is being quirky while petting her pet rabbits. Heartbroken after a confrontation with his ex-wife, Eugene ends up moving in with Titty and convinces the teen that he’s got to get out and go after his dream girl. Cue road movie/buddy comedy/romantic drama between a bunch of social misfits looking for some kindness. Friendships are forged, confidences broken, and lines are crossed, but by the end everything’s pretty nice and tender.

As the central trio, Kentucker Audley (Eugene), Olly Alexander (Titty), and Joslyn Jensen (Ginger) bring legitimate charm. Their performances playfully bounce off each other and create a chemistry that’s weird, stilted, and representative of the intimacy (with serious reservations) that defines the needs of their characters. Although they reference the overt causes of their emotional turmoil, Bagnall wisely doesn’t let her characters over-explain their boilerplate sob stories. Atmospherically, Funny Bunny’s cluttered, threadbare coziness is engaging. Much like Bagnall’s previous credits, Buffalo ‘66 and The Dish and the Spoon, a lot of muddled and haphazard plotting is forgivable simply because it’s nice to not know where things are going. Even the off-the-charts quirk levels—actual bunnies hop through frame a LOT—are tolerable.

The only thing that keeps Funny Bunny from being a twee—yet passingly interesting—character-driven piece is the overzealous inclusion of not one, but two politically-charged lines of focus. Instead of giving insight into our characters as Bagnall presumably intends them to, both Eugene’s obsession with childhood obesity awareness and Ginger’s involvement with a borderline militant animal rights group are gratingly preachy and distracting. Especially in the case of the animal rights group plotline, the scenes featuring these issues are timed seemingly with the utmost precision to irk the audience, diminishing the overall desire to go along with Funny Bunny’s more sympathetic foibles.

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Author rating: 6/10