Reviews & Previews - The 40 Year Old Virgin

Posted on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 at 06:00 PM

The 40 Year Old Virgin

By: S. Tran

Starring: Steve Carell, Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Seth Rogan
Directed by: Judd Apatow
Running Time: 116 Minutes
Rated: Rated 18A

Just Do It

Finally, there is a movie that worthy to be called a comedy this year. The 40 Year Old Virgin is a riot, relying on clever writing, great acting and truly sympathetic characters instead of lame fart jokes and predictable sight gags. The film follows the adventures of Andy, played by Steve Carell as the titular 40 year old tech shop employee who has yet to do the deed.

His fellow employees make it their mission to help Andy meet women and get laid whether he wants to or not. Carell does a great job as the insecure Andy as he awkwardly tries to follow the advice of his well meaning but clueless co-workers. Rudd, Malco and Rogan all put in great performances as his friends. They manage to play the well meaning idiots without becoming the typical obnoxious friends that seem to populate these comedies. You laugh because they truly want to help Andy, they just have no idea how to do it properly.

Special recognition has to go to Judd and Apatow for writing a great script that makes you laugh with witty dialogue in addition to the funny physical humour. The script manages to bring out the comedy in every scene and Carell's nervous delivery is the perfect compliment to some of the outrageous dialogue.

Its also refreshing to see a film that manages to carry the humour all the way through the movie as well. Apatow does a great job to keep the film moving along and not letting it drag. At the same time though he doesn't go overboard on the jokes and the timing is perfect for most of the funny scenes in the film. So many comedies today rely on one joke stretched out over 90 minutes and you find yourself laughing only sporadically through the movie. During this film we were laughing from beginning through to the end.

The 40 year old virgin is not a big budget production. In fact some of the scenes looked like they were from student films. However it manages to pack in more laughs than the rest of the comedies this year combined. Be warned this is not a film for children, but if you want to have a great time at the movies this year and laugh for a couple hours then check it out.

4.5 out of 5 stars.