Sex + love = real happiness

Rating: 6/10 (14 October 2007)

Barbed, ribald, occasionally tasteless comedy does have a definite plus: it has an unashamed big heart (and a surprisingly old-fashioned undermining). Steve Carell plays a middle-aged kid, a tech-store stock manager into monster toys and video games, who confesses to his buddies at work that he is still, in fact, a sexual novice. Slick, commercial comedy directed by Judd Apatow, who co-wrote the screenplay with Carell, doesn't condescend to its main character (his celibacy isn't something he chose or planned on, it's merely a hurdle in his life--and although he's goaded into conquering the beast, he goes about that in his own way). The movie is alternately a sunny sex farce and a more sympathetic character-comedy about being true to yourself, with colorful weirdos filling the cast and lots of smart, insightful talk. Apatow is a giddy force behind the camera, and while his plot creaks and groans at times (particularly in the last third), it doesn't necessarily strike one as a highly-concocted audience pleaser until just after the end-credits roll. **1/2 from ****