The 40-Year-Old Virgin

Believe it or not, I remember a time when Steve Carell wasn't a household name. He had appeared in a couple of shows and had small but hilarious roles in movies like Bruce Almighty and Anchorman. But then 2005 came along and suddenly Steve Carell would boost into one of the biggest names in comedy. First he was the star of a little comedy show that was based off a British television show called, The Office. And then in August he got his own movie to star in with a first time director named Judd Apatow.

While The 40 Year Old Virgin is not necessarily a movie full of firsts, it does feel like a jumping off point for a lot of people. Carell, Apatow, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, even Kevin Hart has a small role in this movie along with a couple of actors who would go on to be really popular in The Office. So what made this movie such a starting off point for so many people?

The movie stars Steve Carell as a man named Andy Stitzer. Andy works at an electronics store and he is very socially awkward. He avoids social interaction, his house is full of nerdy memorabilia, and his co workers all think he's a serial killer.

His co workers, (played by Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, and Romany Malco) need another player for their poker game so they cautiously invite Andy.

During their poker game they start talking about their sexual encounters and it comes out that Andy has never had sex before. Suddenly all the pieces come together and his coworkers are no longer afraid of him and instead make it their goal to get Andy laid.

The fascinating thing I found about Andy's coworkers is that they, and other characters, all have their own view on sex. Romany Malco's character, Jay, is convinced that all Andy's problems will go away if he has sex, like that is the only thing. Seth Rogen, Cal, believes that not only should he have sex, but he should have the weirdest sex imaginable. Paul Rudd, David, who is still hung up on his ex, believes that Andy should find somebody he really cares about. The really funny thing about these guys is that the movie points out the fallacies in their arguments and the nature humor to their viewpoint.

I'll say it right off the bat, this movie actually tackles the topic of sex and virginity in a way that is very typical to Judd Apatow. There are a lot of really raunchy jokes. There's a lot of cursing, and a lot of juvenile humor... however, the movie does tackle the topic in a very real way and actually gives the character and situations a lot of heart.

Throughout the movie Andy shows interest in a woman by the name of Trish (played by Catherine Keener). They actually develop a relationship that could have easily been phoned in to make room for Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd making more jokes about how the other person is gay (definitely a thing that happens in the movie, don't worry, I'll talk about it). But instead they give us a relationship that is funny. They give us scenes that are both funny and actually a little profound, especially when Andy is at a class about sex with the daughter of Trish (played by a young Kat Dennings).

For all the moments where the topic isn't handled tastefully, there are a lot of moments where it really is handled tastefully.

That being said, I do think the movie struggles to stay on target at times.

Yes. The scene where Steve Carell actually gets his chest waxed on screen is super, SUPER funny. And no wonder people respect the hell out of this guy and his commitment to comedy because I will tell you, I would not do that.

But despite how funny that scene and other scenes are in the movie, I can't help but feel the movie stops in its tracks for certain scenes that don't really amount to much. A lot of the times it's just a silly situation and the movie stops so these guys can make as many jokes about that as the run time will allow. Are a lot of them funny? Oh yes, there are scenes that I wouldn't take out of the movie regardless of how they stop the movie in it's track for comedy. But there might be some that I would or I would cut them down a little bit because this movie felt long.

The movie is 2 hours long and it feels longer. It's entertaining throughout the majority of it but after a little bit there is a little bit of a stretch to keep the suspension of belief alive.

A perfect example of this is that sex class he brings Kat Dennings to.

While at this doctors office, he sees a bunch of models of what the vagina looks like and Andy has this sense of wonder as if he's gone 40 years without ever Google-ing vaginas.

And I get that this was 2005 and times were different back then and this scene would be even funnier if it happened at the beginning of the movie. But this scene happens in the latter third of the movie. He's already had exposure to sex, had the opportunity a couple of times, and yet he's still confused about female anatomy about an hour into this movie. Weeks have gone by since his friends started this experiment. Even in the unlikely scenario where he never figured this stuff out in the past 40 years, it is truly odd that weeks later he still is so clueless.

The good thing is, I feel like I'm kind of nitpicking when it comes to this movie. There are a lot of really great things to say about this movie.

The cast of this movie is really good and it's especially interesting knowing how early this was in their career and the lengths they were willing to go to make people laugh.

And this movie will make you laugh hard, probably in the first 2 minutes. The characters sometimes feel unrealistic, but there is a lot of heart to them and they never feel cartoonish. You care about Andy, his friends, the people he interacts with and there's a broad scope of where this movie goes, especially with the fact that it does take a lot of detours to just make you laugh.

Yeah, there's a reason my parents didn't let me see this movie when I was younger, it's a raunchy movie. It's hilarious, but I wouldn't show your kids. There's a lot of adult themes and jokes that are really based towards high school to college aged people. But I do think it is a solid movie regardless.

For some reason the movie has the feel of a 90s comedy with the premise that you really only could find in a post 2000s world.

Overall, I highly recommend The 40 Year Old Virgin.

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See you next time.