Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here. I haven’t written up my own thoughts on any of the new stuff from BNAT yet because I’ve been trying to catch up before the end of the year with a dozen other movies. At least. But it doesn’t surprise me that people are still moved to send in reviews from the event. What a line-up this year. This one in particular was great fun to watch with this crowd since it was so unfinished. We saw a much longer cut than anyone else ever will, and it was fascinating to see everything Apatow shot. I’m really curious what we’ll see when the film finally hits theaters this summer. Take it away, Nordling. And I KNEW you were looking a little puffy this year. Congratulations, you MILF...
I like the way Judd Apatow thinks. He's definitely a buffet-type filmmaker, with an all-you-can-eat style of directing and a comfortable rapport with his cast as they riff and bounce ideas off each other to tell their story. There's a couple of problems with this, however. One is that there really is too much of a good thing. Another problem is that it becomes really difficult to determine what stays and what goes, trying to figure out what works and what doesn't. Granted, you get the luxury of having a wide array of scenes to choose from, but if you're too close to it as most filmmakers probably are, you begin to miss the forest for the trees, of which there may be too many. This in no way means I'm about to diss KNOCKED UP. Not at all. And I wouldn't be so brash as to assume that what I'm going to suggest is going to be some cure all. But, the movie does open in August, so there's plenty of time to tinker and fix what doesn't work, and fine tune what does. The story itself is pretty simple. Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) hangs out with his stoner buddies (fans of FREAKS AND GEEKS and UNDECLARED will have a field day with these guys), trying to design a website that catalogs famous people's nude scenes in movies. He has little to no ambition, but he's obviously smart and funny, and has a good heart. Meanwhile, Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) has just been offered a promotion for the E! Entertainment Channel, doing on-camera interviews with celebrities. So she goes out to a local club to celebrate with her sister Debbie (Leslie Mann), who is married to Pete (Paul Rudd) for several years now. Alison has a few too many drinks, as does Ben, they meet up, and well, the natural order of things take their course. Alison goes through what must be every pregnancy test in LA County, and she gets the sign - she's pregnant. Ben's world, who has up till this point had hardly any responsibilities whatsoever, is suddenly thrown into disarray as he tries to figure out how to make this work. And two completely mismatched people begin to fall in love with each other. First, what works. The movie is ROFLMAO hilarious. (Yeah, I went there.) Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen should be registered as lethal weapons. I had a hard time breathing much of the time I was watching this, mostly because I know guys like Rogen and Rudd who just fucking kill with a word or a look. The film never has a problem with the funny, between Rogen, Rudd, the UNDECLARED/FREAKS crew (Martin Starr's beard deserves some sort of acting nomination), and even Heigl and Leslie Mann, who are terrific. I imagine the hardest job in the world is figuring out which jokes stay and which go. (Mr. Apatow - the 'shrooms at Cirque De Soleil STAYS, dude.) I also admire the film's pro-life attitude - it's not jingoistic at all. Now, don't read into that more than you need to. This film's not about that. It's never in your face with it, but the pro-life stance is definitely there. Here's the problem, and I don't know if this can be solved in edits or reshoots - I never once really believed that this obviously beautiful, talented woman fell for such a shlub like Ben Stone. It's not until late in the film that Ben gets any sort of motivation to better himself, and by then it felt paint-by-numbers. We expect it and so it happens. Of course, it's supposed to happen, because that's how these movies go, but it happens really late in the movie and it feels forced. That's not to say Rogen and Heigl don't have chemistry together, because they do. But Heigl's character constantly seems overwhelmed by what's happening and the fact that she's with a guy who seems frightened and helpless just isn't believable. Eventually, she would have kicked his ass to the curb. I just never bought she loved him. The scenes where she tries to push through the relationship, to make it work, do work, but there's never that moment in the film where you finally see what she's supposed to see in him. Now, you believe Rogen. You believe he falls in love with this woman who's obviously out of his league. And this isn't the fault of Heigl's acting - the scenes that show her really falling for this guy just aren't there. This can be fixed, through edits and reshoots, of that I'm certain. Because, again, they've got the funniest film in years if they can make the relationship/romantic stuff work. The print we saw at BNAT was 2 and a half hours long, roughly, and I laughed pretty much 2 hours of that. It's not just lines, it's genuine character humor, because the audience will like everyone in the film. We even get several hilarious cameos (Harold Ramis is a standout). Pound for pound, you're going to get your laugh money's worth. If Judd Apatow and the editors can see the forest for the trees, they will have one of the best romantic comedies yet. They just got to make the love work, and I feel confident they can. The romance of THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN was pretty much perfect. You really believed these people fell in love. With KNOCKED UP, not so much, not yet. Either way, this summer, Apatow is bringing the funny, and just for the sheer amount of laughs we get with KNOCKED UP, it's a film well worth seeing. Nordling
