Two films in one

Rating: Null/10 (4 September 2007)

This movie - the surprise low-budget success of summer 2007 - is the latest in a growing line of 'nerd gets girl' rom-com fantasies which have included "High Fidelity", "The Wedding Singer" and "There's Something About Mary". Written and directed by Judd Apatow, who gave us "The 40-Year Old Virgin", this stars Seth Rogen as Ben Stone, an overweight slacker in all departments, who manages to bed Katherine Heigl as Alison Scott, the beautiful and aspiring television production assistant about to go in front of the cameras. Their drunken one-night stand becomes immensely more complicated when Alison finds that she is pregnant and wants the baby.
"Knocked Up" is really two films aimed at different demographics and, over the two hours, it veers from one to the other. There is is the gross-out comedy full of crudity and profanity aimed at (mainly male) teenagers and then there is the perceptive, even moving, examination of the trials and the joys of commitment, marriage, pregnancy and parenthood targeted mainly at both men and women in their 20s and 30s. The first theme has some very funny lines and situations, but for me all these cinematic references to masturbation need to be taken in hand. The second theme is more intelligent and true-to-life, while still being wry and amusing, and is made genuinely poignant by the engaging performances of the two leads, ably supported by Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd as Alison's sister and brother-in-law.