Knocked Up

Rating: 8/10 (18 September 2007)

It's been a long time since I've last seen a really good romantic comedy. When you look at Hollywood's mainstream output in this genre recently you will discover oscitant boredom. One part of the key to Judd Apatow's success with "Knocked Up" is that it's rated R. Many rom-coms are just too harmless and children-friendly to find a way into the heart of the audience. Apatow also writes real characters, not only templates. This is obvious in the female main character Alison. She is elaborated very well, unusually well in a genre where the female lead often only has the task to look well. And the character is also acted very well by Katherine Heigl, who proves her movie qualities here. But also the male characters are very interesting, led by Seth Rogan's Ben. They are portrayed a bit hyperbolized, also for fun reasons, but the emotions are pretty real still. The result is a movie that's very funny with great characters, a good soundtrack and a few really true insights about relationships. That's pretty steep!