more laughs than your average romcom

Rating: 7/10 (30 July 2008)

The romantic comedy is big business in Hollywood. Like the action movie staple, it is designed to appeal to a wide audience. But we've all seen so many of these films that they have totally lost any ability to surprise us. Boy meets girl, boy and girl like each other, an obstacle is placed in their way, boy loses girl, the obstacle is overcome... the audience won't stand an unhappy ending, so the destination is always the same; everyone lives happily ever after. What matters, then, is what happens along the way.
No one will be surprised to learn that Knocked Up does not deviate from this formula- but starting from an unusual premise (a one night stand between Ben and Alison, two mismatched types) and developing a new genre, the gross-out romantic comedy (I know! Romance for the girls and sick gags for the boys, it's a sure-fire winner) it remains consistently entertaining along the way.
My main problem with the film is that I had no sympathy at all with Ben and his slacker friends. A few genuinely funny gags aside, they remained impressively irritating throughout the movie. Much better is director Judd Apatow's sly dig at the conventions of the form, an interesting subplot centred around the marital troubles of Alison's sister and her husband, a few years down the marriage road. Convincingly played by Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann, the couple's problems are not fully resolved; look, Apatow is saying to us, Ben and Alison may be happy at the end of the movie, but in a few years' time this is where they may well end up.
Seth Rogen plays Ben well, a big bear of a man scared to grow up. I was less convinced by Alison, played by Katherine Heigl; maybe it's the way the role is written, but she never creates a realistic personality for the character. One minute she is revolted by the lifestyle of Ben and his friends, and seemingly within no time she is enthusiastically joining in. Still, there are enough laughs for a strong supporting cast to keep the entertainment rolling along to the inevitable conclusion. Like many romantic comedies, I am not sure Knocked Up will live long in the memory. It's too long for a comedy (really, two hours? Ninety minutes is always enough). However, it offers more genuine laughs than most in the genre, and confirms Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen as talents to watch.