Entertaining and rewarding adult Rom-com

Rating: 8/10 (14 May 2010)

Hilarious tale of the misadventures of an average Joe after a one night stand culminates in pregnancy, this is a major step forward from Apatow's directorial debut 'The 40 Year Old Virgin' in my opinion. More so than his closely related peers' the Farrelly brothers and Kevin Smith, Apatow walks the line between sentimentality and crudeness so easily he practically dances across it. It's about time films as R rated as this could be commercial successes. Although future performances have shown him to be slightly one-dimensional Seth Rogen stands out here as someone so average and lazy that he has been living off an insurance claim for five years. In a film where every support character steals most of the scenes they're in - Jason Segel being overly sleazy towards Leslie Mann, Jonah Hill getting pink eye, Craig Robinson declaring that Mann is 'Old as f**k' and Heigl is 'pregnant as f**k', as excuses for them being denied entry into a nightclub - it speaks volumes that we still remember Heigl and Rogen afterwards; Heigl propelling herself to the top of the Hollywood female Rom-com list. After the initial dent in the narrative equilibrium Apatow eases into what he does best in creating a very satisfying 'bromance' between Rogen and a superb Paul Rudd, the latter seemingly improving with each new role. This somewhat subtracts slightly from the central romance but nevertheless where the plot seems to stutter the laughs never do and ultimately most will be won over straight away or converted at some stage as the it heaves its way towards an amiable, if slightly predictable denouement.