Veteran clown Jerry Lewis and the young actor Oliver Platt, each giving a performance of rare humor and feeling, dig for the bleak roots of comedy in this hypnotic whatsit from Peter Chelsom, the British writer and director of Hear My Song. The film is overlong and flawed by disorienting shifts in mood and pacing. No matter. Funny Bones is provocative entertainment that blends mirth and malice with startling results.

Platt stars as Tommy Fawkes, a comic whose career is dwarfed by that of his…