The 40-Year-Old Virgin

Does it bother anyone else that all modern sex comedies share the same dull philosophy on human relationships? Every single movie about guys trying desperately to get laid has to end with the guys discovering that sex isn't important, and that only true love matters. Now, it hardly seems to me that the American majority opinion on sex is that it's only satisfying once you've settled into a committed long-term relationship. That's not how most people behave. So why is that what our movies are constantly telling us?

The 40-Year-Old Virgin hardly breaks new ground in this territory, but it's pretty sly in the way it proceeds towards its inevitable "true love" conclusion. Co-writer/director Judd Apatow (responsible for "Freaks and Geeks," among the best American TV shows ever) doesn't go the American Pie route, giving us a group of horny poonhounds who gradually learn to stop being juvenile and shallow and embrace their inner romantic.

Instead, he shows us a group of male friends, each with his own neurotic, confused take on sexuality. The fact that one of them is a 40-year-old virgin provides the film with many of its laughs, but the real message here is the sameness of their situation. These guys may have different levels of experience, but they're all as naive as the one who's never gotten laid.



It's an interesting set-up for a sex comedy, and Apatow and co-writer and star Steve Carell's script gets a lot of mileage out of a disarmingly simple premise. The film is far from flawless, and actually shares a lot of the same problems with this summer's other, less funny sex comedy, Wedding Crashers. Both films are overlong and both films become less funny and forced on their way to predictable conclusions. Also, both feature shrill, lame and stereotypical recurring jokes. (Here, it's a Pakistani co-worker with a filthy mouth, whose entire role is nothing more than an excuse to have an old guy with a foreign accent say things like "shitty balls.")

But Virgin has a lot more going for it than just a show-stoppingly manic Vince Vaughn performance. It's at heart a very sweet story about a really nice guy who, without really noticing, became a pathetic enigma. Carell's Andy is a nerdy loner (his co-workers think he might be a serial killer), but he's hardly the sort of bizarre creep who you'd think of as unable to find a willing female in 40 years on Earth. He's just painfully shy, and a bit too willing to let life pass him by, so he has wound up collecting action figures and playing HALO rather than pursuing women.

When his three friends from the electronic store where he works discover his virginal status during a poker game, they make it their mission to get Andy laid. Despite their best efforts to hook him up with a cheap floozy, he's drawn in to a more stable relationship with a single mom (Catherine Keener).

Each of these supporting performances is a small wonder, particularly "Freaks and Geeks" veteran Seth Rogen as Cal, a degenerate horndog stoner who nonetheless dispenses some of the movie's best advice. Paul Rudd, who had arguably the best role in last year's goofy Anchorman, here ably tackles the straight man role, while the unknown-to-me Romany Malco turns in a star-making performance as the womanizing Jay.

Keener has a rare, friendly character, Trish, the woman who may actually, if you can believe it, consider turning Andy into a man. It's nice to see her play something other than a savagely cruel, man-hating harpy, even though she plays that part just about better than anyone.

As I said, the only real problem here is the running time. Apatow and Carell have more than enough funny set-ups to go around for their premise - among the more amusing sequences finds Andy having his hairy chest and stomach painfully waxed in anticipation of a hot date - but 2 hours is just too damn long for a bawdy romantic comedy. Unless you're Woody Allen.

A few unneccessary, late-in-the-game plot twists don't really add anything substantial to the film except 15 minutes. There's even a really superfluous chase scene at the end, as if the film felt guilty about ending without an oversized, wacky set piece.

Other than that, the movie's entirely solid, a very funny comedy that's just dirty enough to be satisfying without feeling sleazy or like camp. Almost assuredly the best mainstream comedy of the summer. (NOTE: I don't consider Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a comedy, but if you do, then say 40-Year-Old Virgin is the best romantic comedy, or adult comedy.)