Andrew McMurtryREVIEW: 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
November 10th 2008 05:59
“40 Year Old Virgin” is a very funny movie. It appears to be part of the new wave of comedy, the comedies from the minds of Judd Apatow, who directed this movie, and Seth Rogen, who produced and played the role of Cal in this film. This is the realist type of comedy. It is set mostly in a stereo store with a bunch of workers. It’s not that surreal and any moments that do seem surreal still fit in with the general feel of the movie. This is the type of movie that will take something from life and it look at how they deal with the ramifications. This is shown a scene when Andy (Steve Carell) gets his chest hair waxed, incidentally one of the funniest moments of the film. There are also other scenes when Andy starts picking up women which are pretty funny as well. This new type of movie leaves the story behind for the laughs, despite the story having a legitimate message to give the audience.
The “40 Year Old Virgin” deals with Andy, a stock room supervisor at a stereo store. But this film deals with the fact that Andy is 40 years old and yet he is still a virgin. This is when his friends find out and pledge to help him have sex. The thing is that these guys are hopeless when it comes to women and relationships. The first one, David (Paul Rudd), is broken-hearted and slowly goes insane, which is more comical than upsetting. Jay (Romany Malco) is a compulsive cheater. And the third, Cal (Seth Rogen), is merely clueless and will sleep with anything. They have skewed views on love and sex though, as shown by the following passage:
Andy: Where is she now?
David: Oh she's dating some pot dealer which is a stupid horrible decision, but hey - that's her journey. If she wants to be a f***ing immature b**** and blow everybody...But that's love, man.
As they try to help Andy out, their schemes often don’t quite go to plan as you see when Andy goes to get his chest waxed.
After the four of them try to get Andy some sex for most of the movie, the “40 Year Old Virgin” shifts into its primary narrative, the romance, after Andy meets Trish (Catherine Keener) who works across the road in the “We Sell Your Stuff On Ebay” Store. Director Judd Apatow uses montage sequences to show the progression of Andy from geek in the beginning, to the boyfriend after he meets Trish. Apatow uses the montage sequence to show the progression of Andy’s life through his uncomfortable nature around women to his blossoming love with Trish.
This film goes for the cheap laugh rather than the formulated narrative especially when Cal thinks Andy is a serial killer or when Cal and David have a running joke of “You know how I know your gay…” This holds what would otherwise be a formulated romantic comedy into a comedy with a little bit of romance to give it a story. The narrative holds the film together rather than just making a joke movie. The story is told by Andy, not directly, but his body language and the way he acts to deliver the story. The other three guys are just there to tell jokes and keep the audience happy.
This is a great film and will probably be remembered for many years as the film which properly launched the Judd Apatow crude but sweet comedies such as Knocked Up, Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It is a great little movie though. It has a great cast and is well written and directed. You find yourself wanting to watch it more than just the once. I’d give it 4 out of 5.
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