Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
The other night, as we were gathered together smoking cigars and toasting my boy, Hercules The Strong professed his overwhelming love for Judd Apatow’s new movie. I’ve heard a lot of people say the same thing now. I had a good feeling about this one when I visited the set earlier this year. And now, we’ve got a review from Bungion Boy, one of our longtime reviewers out of New York. Check it out:
Hello Harry, et al. Bungion Boy here again. Tonight in New York I had the pleasure of seeing “The 40 Year Old Virgin.” I had been looking forward to this film for a long time. I am a huge fan of the work of Judd Apatow, who has been behind some of the smartest and funniest shows that television has ever had to offer, such as “Freaks and Geeks,” “The Larry Sanders Show,” “The Ben Stiller Show,” and “Undeclared.” Last year he produced the very funny “Anchorman” which seemed to take Steve Carell out of the world of delightful cameos and “that guy from the Daily Show” to the mainstream. But as much as I really loved “Anchorman” and especially Steve Carell in it, I felt that the film had a laugh ratio of only about 50% and that it was more like 90 minutes of funny character actors used as vessels to get out silly jokes rather than it feeling like a complete film with a compelling story. Hey. I’m not complaining. There is a place for that and I love it, but this is what made me really love “The 40 Year Old Virgin.”
The plot of the movie is pretty much explained solely by its title. Carell is a virgin, he’d rather not be one, his friends would really rather that he were not one, and so they go about their attempts to get him sex. Given Carell in the lead and actors like Paul Rudd and Seth Rogan surrounding him, the premise already sounds hilarious. But pretty much all of the actors in the film impressed me by providing more than their token stereotype parts would ordinarily allow them. To begin with, Carell plays a real sympathetic, sweet, understandable character in Andy Stitzer. It would have been easy and probably expected of him to just do another version of what we’ve seen before. I was expecting a smarter version of Brick Tamland or “American Office Guy,” but instead Carell plays the part like a normal person, who only occasionally goes a little over the top crazy and silly. In the beginning of the film he is asked how his weekend was and he begins to describe in detail an epic making of egg salad sandwiches. This was his big, exciting weekend, and a part of him knows that it’s pathetic, but at the same time he is a man who has accepted that this is what he has become and has learned to ignore the embarrassment that comes with leading a boring life. Carell never really plays Andy as pathetic but rather as simply socially awkward but sweet, and immediately it’s perfectly understandable why his friends would want to help him. Not because it would make a funny scenario for a movie, but because he’s the kind of guy that anyone would want to help. My favorite scene that showed Carell’s sweet side was when he packed up all of his collectable toys to sell on ebay. While it’s funny, there’s also a kind of sadness as he lets go of the plastic things that used to be his only friends in order for him to become closer to a real friend.
When Andy’s co-workers discover he’s a virgin they make it their quest to get Andy laid, which makes him generally uncomfortable, while being just a little bit hopeful. His friends are played Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, and Seth Rogan (who played my favorite character on Freaks and Geeks.) Again, while all three of these characters have the same traits of profane, loudmouth jerks, but each one of them has specific qualities that differ from the others making them deeper than the usual interchangeable “best friend” roles that you usually find in movies like this. I especially enjoyed Paul Rudd’s moments when he’d lament for his girlfriend who left him over two years ago. It’s the little imperfections like these that make the supporting characters more confident than Andy, but still with their own problems that they need to get over. And they fell like ordinary guys doing real things. I’m so sick of seeing movie characters doing things that most people just don’t do, i.e. skydive, jet ski. There is a scene in the film in which Rudd and Rogan play Mortal Kombat for about five minutes and call each other gay. It’s funny and relaxing to just see characters living a low-stakes life. The R rating also allows them to drop F bombs into almost every sentence they say, making the dialogue hilarious but also strangely familiar. Not since “Bad Santa” have I found the simplest profanity so funny.
Eventually Andy meets Catherine Keener’s character who is a 40 year old mother of three and grandmother to one. She’s incredibly charming in the film and shows the same comedic quirk that she’s had in films like “Being John Malkovich” and “Living in Oblivion.” Her scenes with Andy are sweet and never get too ridiculous or silly. Even when they are in bed and she asks Andy if he has protection and she says “I don’t really like guns,” it doesn’t feel like a cheap joke and she doesn’t treat it that way. This is just the way Andy’s innocent mind interprets things and she thinks it’s adorable. Even in this film which delves into broad comedy I found their relationship a hundred times more believable than ones from any other romantic comedy of the last few years, like in crap like “Hitch” and “Along Came Polly.” Oh dear. Did I just admit that I saw “Hitch?” (Holds head in shame) Okay. Let’s move on.
All in all “The 40 Year Old Virgin” is possibly the funniest film to come out so far this year, which isn’t a strong feat but it will have to work hard to be as good as “The Baxter,” which I’ve also seen and enjoyed for many of the same qualities. The film is a little long but I don’t know what I would cut from it. It’s all pretty funny. I overheard someone at the screening say that fifteen minutes had to be taken out of it. If anything could be trimmed it would be Lesilie Mann who has a funny but overlong scene as one of the first “drunk bitches” Andy tries to score with. Elizabeth Banks (The Baxter, Seabuscuit) plays another potential deflowerer who I found to be much more interesting and amusing, and if I may say, easy on the eyes. There is also one too many scenes with Jane Lynch as Andy’s boss hitting on him. It’s very funny once, not as much in her third attempt. And then of course there is the musical number, which would be really stupid and out of place if it wasn’t so damn funny. August is usually such a crap month for movies. I remember seeing “Alien Vs. Predator” around that time last year. This is a great comedy that should please a lot of people this summer. I encourage you all to see it.
-Bungion Boy
Thanks, man. Can’t wait.
"Moriarty" out.
