Could use more polish, but still very funny

Rating: 8/10 (23 August 2007)

Judd Apatow did it again. Even better this time with this film. The story is pretty simple, girl and boy get wasted, have sex and girl gets pregnant. She decides to keep it and they start giving parenthood a shot, even though they are strangers to each other.
The conflicts are pretty obvious from the start: not knowing each other and being opposite each other as well. Of course the story is about these two people learning to fall in love (or very slowly learning what love is), with a baby bringing them together. And it has a large number of very funny moments, some working better than others.
There's a lot that carries over from The 40 Year Old Virgin and not all of it is good. Many of the players cross over from one film to this film, whether in major supporting roles or bit parts. The gross-out stoner comedy makes it into this one as well as the moments of real-to-life banter. And there's a surprising amount of heart stuck into this piece as well, which is all very good. I don't laugh when watching most comedies, so getting me laughing is a good sign for a comedy.
But some of the weaknesses from 40 Year Old Virgin also return for this film, including several scenes, which might be funny, but seem a little forced or unnecessary. These include many of the banter scenes which do seem a little artificial because, although they might have happened in the real life, these are not the scenes that we would remember in real life. Consequently, since they do not carry any dramatic thrust, it creates a sense of "why am I watching this?" Or at least it did in me. But it is far more natural and flows much better than 40, so I give it credit for improvement.
I think the movie could've been a little shorter with some of those scenes clipped and held a better pace. But nonetheless, the cast performs well, the story hits its marks, the direction overall is a little unspectacular, but it does what it needs to do. And it's funny. And I found Katherine Heigl surprising watchable in this film (surprising to me because I have a hard time believing her character (and most characters) in "Grey's Anatomy".
I do wish we had a stronger understanding of why Alison decides to keep the baby or got to see a little bit more of her perspective, since we primarily stick with Ben's side of the story. But mostly, I just wished that it was tighter. But that doesn't prevent this film from being highly enjoyable and a bit more than the usual mindless comedy fare in the genre it belongs to. So I recommend it. It's funny, it's got heart and I look forward to the next Apatow film to see where he goes from here. 8/10.