Sharp Script and Carell's Skillful Underplaying Make for a Hilarious, Humane Comedy

Rating: 8/10 (20 December 2005)

The very concept of this movie sent a chill up my spine, as I was preparing myself for the return of Pee Wee Herman and the inevitable man-child clichés that would come with a character bearing the movie's title. Contrary to my expectations, this film is a frequently hilarious, surprisingly humane comedy that goes well beyond the inevitable deflowering process. First-time director Judd Apatow smartly averts the movie from being a one-joke premise and provides instead a perceptive overview of the romantic anxieties and social pressures faced by those looking unsuccessfully for intimacy. That's not to say it doesn't have its share of crude humor and graphic sex jokes, but more importantly, it has a heart thanks primarily to a thoughtful script by Apatow and Steve Carell.
In a sharply comic performance, Carell plays the title character, Andy Stitzer, as a socially clueless, emotionally inert loner in a paralyzing state of arrested development. Surrounded by his exhaustive action figure collection and working in a Circuit City-type electronics store, he rides a bike, doesn't know how to drive and doesn't seem to want to despite living in LA (the one plot contrivance) and can talk endlessly about making egg salad as the highlight of his weekend. Andy works with a trio of co-workers who all think of themselves erroneously as wise in the ways of love, and upon discovering Andy's virginity, they are determined to help him get a woman.
But the film doesn't focus so much on the pursuit as it does in peeling off the layers of Andy's personality - the fundamental terror that has kept him from women, a constant need for order and logic to fill the void, and finally an eagerness for life to stay simple and uncomplicated so that he can live without confronting his fear. In short, he has rationalized sex and intimacy out of his life, that is, until he meets Trish, a nice, eccentric single mom running an eBay transaction store. Their burgeoning relationship is the heart of the story, and it certainly helps to have the always wonderful Catherine Keener play Trish in such a warm, loopy fashion that it's easy to believe the mutual attraction.
The supporting performances are terrific - Paul Rudd portrays Andy's closest colleague David, who cannot get over his failed relationship which he faces again in a chance meeting with his ex-girlfriend at a speed dating event; Romany Malco plays Jay, a married philanderer who eventually gets caught; Seth Rogen as Cal, who thinks he's a ladies' man despite all the evidence to the contrary; and Jane Lynch from "Best in Show" as their manager, a power-driven woman who in a very funny scene, discreetly offers herself to Andy and serenades him with a Guatemalan folk song.
There are several great scenes, including the poker scene where Andy awkwardly talks about women knowingly, the already famous chest hair-waxing where Andy yells out a series of Tourette-like epithets, and the surreal musical production number at the end, which will get any baby boomer giggling with abandon. Truth be told, it runs a bit too long and sags toward the last third, but I doubt if I have laughed at a film so much in the past year.