|
THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN Send This Review to a Friend
If there are any male virgins over 40, they may be priests or a hapless guy like Andy, the sexual innocent played by the very funny Steve Carell in the solid-gold titled “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” promising to lure audiences seeking summer fun. The film, written by director Judd Apatow in collaboration with Carell, offers hilarity a good part of the time before succumbing to the obligatory romantic niceties that tend to go with Hollywood comedies. One can laugh, but there has to be a happy ending. In other words, Carell not only must have sex, but he has to find the woman of his dreams before doing it. All this unfolds in an atmosphere in which everybody seems sex-obssessed.
This entertainment is built around the notion that losing one’s virginity still can be titillating for American audiences as opposed to European audiences targeted more often with the complications of infidelity. But let’s be grateful for the laughs that are there, thanks largely to the talent of Carell, the women in the cast, the raunchy dialogue and the situations the screenwriters have concocted.
Andy’s male buddies are doing their utmost to get him into the sack with their imposing advice, but the reticent Andy doesn’t know how to talk to a woman and when he meets one he likes, Trish, played with appealing warmth and intelligence by Catherine Keener, he is too nervous to call the number that she has forwardly given him. And when they first to get down to a bedroom attempt, there is deflowring-interruptus as her daughter barges in, probably in time to save worse embarrassment after Andy has made a mess of packages of condoms.
There’s a good scene with Elizabeth Banks as a horny gal who is ready to do anything Andy might want and more, but the opportunity is too much for him. Basically, Andy remains a romantic. When he settles in for an evening intended to be committed to masturbation and watching porn, he lights candles to set the proper mood.
This is a one-joke concept, but it is surprising how much the screenwriters can embellish on the idea. The film begins to run thin and lose steam, especially when getting serious. But all ends on an amusing note as well as Andy’s ultimate initiation to the joy of coitus. Others in the helpful cast include Paul Rudd, Romany Malco and Seth Rogen. A Universal Pictures release.
|