The 40-Year-Old Virgin

Director: Judd Apatow
Starring: Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Catherine Keener, Romany Malco, Seth Rogen
Running time: 100mins
Certificate: 15

When Andy admits he is still a virgin at 40, his colleagues have the hard task of rectifying the sorry situation.

Andy (Carell) is regarded by the few people in his life as being a nice but boring person who may also be a serial killer on the side. He couldn’t be further from being one of the lads – he is video game geek with a vast collection of action figures and gets from A to B on a bicycle. His colleagues talk about live sex shows whilst the highlight of his weekend is an epic preparation of a sandwich. What’s more is that he has lived through 40 years without ‘knowing’ women. When his electrical goods store workmates invite him to a poker game to make up the numbers, talk turns to sex. On finding out that poor Andy has little to talk about, they decide something must be done, and they’re the ones to show him on his way by bestowing upon him sage dating advice (such as a preying on ‘drunk bitches’) and tips on self-improvement. However, he has his heart set on a young grandmother.

Although based on a simple enough premise – a man on a mission to get laid – thankfully this movie doesn’t fall into the trap of rehashing the same few jokes over and over again for its entirety (Meet The Fockers). Instead, Apatow takes us through plenty of different scenarios, never drawing on the same humour twice. For example, Andy trying to chat up a woman in a bookstore armed with the knowledge that women only want to talk about themselves is a highlight, and is completely different from awkward discussions at a family planning clinic or wooing women in bars. Meanwhile there’s also a fair helping of the American Pie gross-out/slapstick brand of humour including projectile vomiting, getting to grips with condoms and an excruciating (improvised) body wax scene.

American Pie is fairly good comparator for this film, though the fresh aspect here compared to similar movies, and adding to the humour, is the fact that it’s a middle-aged man going through the kind of exploits which it is usually the teens we see undertaking on the screen.

The movie is an excellent vehicle for Carell, America’s David Brent in The Office. A character whose circumstances could otherwise come across as deeply pathetic is portrayed in such a way to make the audience completely on his side and sympathetic towards him and genuinely happy when he seems to be getting what he wants. Equally, the supporting cast are just as likeable in their roles.

On paper, The 40-Year-Old Virgin looks like a film whose premise could get very tired after around half an hour but it is a pleasant surprise to see that, although it could have done with a little editing, the diversity of its humour and the ease with which the audience can care for the characters keeps it going.