The 40 Year Old Virgin Unrated
Filed Under: Film, Reviews | Article Tags : DVD review
By: Erik Swift
January 2006
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2005 was a crap year for movies. So many stinkers were released it’s no shock that ticket sales plummeted. Only “Sin City” and two prequels (“Star Wars III”, “Batman Begins”) were worth catching until a pair of killer comedies arrived. The crowd-pleasing “Wedding Crashers” was good stuff, but the laughs do not stop during Judd Apatow’s “The 40 Year Old Virgin.” Checking your shorts halfway through is a wise move: it’s piss-in-your-pants funny with the rare kind of well-written humor that is worth rewatching.
Shy Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell) rides a bike to his job in an electronics store. Regarded as a bit odd by his co-workers, he eventually admits to the guys during poker that he hasn’t poked anyone. Andy’s mishap-laden sexual history has been a source of pain for the lovable hairy loser. Resigning himself to the ultimate low, he has long given up on finding the Promised Land. A more focused “American Pie,” David (Paul Rudd), Jay (Romany Malco) and Cal (Seth Rogen) use their experience to get Andy experienced. The ups (Catherine Keener), downs (Leslie Mann) and sexy arounds (Elizabeth Banks) Andy endures are a riot.
Anyone who didn’t know of Carell, a regular on “The Daily Show” and the American version of “The Office,” sure does now. The actor is absolutely fantastic. Feeling sorry for his character is automatic, and the change in Andy’s body language during the course of “The 40 Year Old Virgin” is the work of a pro. After all of the dogpiles courtesy of Hollywood for the last twelve months, how awesome would it be to see Carell duke it out for an Oscar with Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman? Hell, he sacrificed his chest hair for the role. Take that, DeNiro.
The bond shared by Carell, Rudd, Malco and Rogen grows during “The 40 Year Old Virgin,” and sidesplitting cast members that explore the film’s subtle exploration of social and sexual tensions help them. The loose cannon Mooj (Gerry Bedknob, a.k.a. Babu’s buddy on “Seinfeld”) is a memorably irritable co-worker, and Keener is solid. Her lonely grandmother projects the sort of longing for companionship Woody Allen repeatedly instilled in his characters. Her turns in “The Interpreter” and “Capote” (as Harper Lee) have raised her profile this year but as Trish she is vibrantly memorable. Just as the acting is above and beyond the average comedy, so is the screenplay. Authored by Apatow and Carell, it’s reminiscent of “The Breakfast Club” or Cameron Crowe’s best work. Their talent for writing the ways guys talk is prodigiously catchy.
Universal’s unrated DVD is everything it sounds like: hot and lengthy (sorry, couldn’t resist). Every extra is worth watching, especially the extended speed-dating scene that includes such a big rip on Metallica it had to be deleted out of respect for their career. A rooftop chill session, Andy’s fantasies and what really happened after the car accident are moments that couldn’t fit inside the original 117 or the unrated’s 133 minutes but hit home runs here. A quad-screen split of the chest waxing scene’s multiple camera views is more painful than the one in the film. Seeing Carell scream in pain as each strip comes off his chest is one of the few enduring cinematic images of 2005, and “The 40 Year Old Virgin” deserved every dollar of the $100+ million it grossed.
In a year filled with cheap whores at the box office, this is a welcome surprise. Apatow made an open, frank and honest work that shows viewers a side of themselves and characters worth caring about long after it ends. He can’t miss if he keeps this up. Universal Pictures’ Unrated Edition of the film scored with consumers, selling two million copies its first week out. If you want to give someone what they want this holiday season, “The 40 Year Old Virgin” will satisfy. Again and again.
Reviewer’s Opinion: BUY IT!!
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