The 40 Year Old Virgin

Rating: 5/10 (20 February 2006)

I saw this film once before, but I needed to see it again to give it a more accurate opinion, especially as it was the big boost for the leading actor, after making an impression after Bruce Almighty, from director Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, Funny People). Basically Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell) is forty years old, has an average job in an electronics superstore stamping invoices, and has an average apartment full of treasured old and valuable action figures and comic books, he is just an average guy. The only thing that doesn't make him average is that he has not yet lost his virginity, and when his work colleagues David (Paul Rudd), Cal (Seth Rogen) and Jay (Romany Malco) find this out they see as a really big deal. They at first saw him as odd and hardly worth hanging out with, but with his revelation they are determined to help Andy do it, whatever way is possible, but all of which has pretty unsuccessful results. This includes drunk Nicky (Leslie Mann) driving and terrifying him before getting to her apartment where he changes his mind, speed dating with people he cannot relate to, and the guys hiring a prostitute who turns out to be a transvestite. Andy finds himself his own possibility of a date with customer Trish Piedmont (Catherine Keener), who owns an eBay selling shop across the street, and she gives him her number, which he does ring but gets nervous when she answers. Eventually, after more failed attempts from his chums, he asks her for a date, that goes very well, and she invites him back to her place, but he experiments with loads of condoms, e.g. blowing them up, and they get interrupted by her teenage daughter Marla (Kat Dennings) before they can have sex. Andy likes her so much that he was planning to tell her he was a virgin, but Trish suggests that they should get to know each other more and have twenty dates before they have sex, and he agrees, and at the same time his good work gets him promoted by boss Paula (Glee's Jane Lynch) to floor manager. While his friends deal with their own relationship issues, David is obsessing over Amy (Mindy Kaling), Jay splits up with girlfriend Jill (Erica Vittina Phillips), but she takes him back after she is pregnant, and Cal helps attractive Bernadette (Marika Dominczyk) to get hired to distract David. As the twentieth date draws near Trish is happy to know that Andy has ambitions to set up his own shops, so she suggests he should sell his valuable and treasured action figures, and for a while he goes along with it to make the money. The twentieth date arrives, but Andy is still unwilling, and this turns into an argument him and Trish, and he leaves to go and get drunk, and he runs into Beth (Slither's Elizabeth Banks), a woman he met earlier, and they go to her apartment. His friends stop him from doing anything with Beth, and he had changed his mind anyway, and Trish is waiting at his apartment, but she has spotted all his suspicious stuff the guys gave him, including pornography, and she thinks he is some kind of psycho. After a chase down the street, in which Andy ends up crashing his bike and going through a truck billboard, she goes over to him, and he finally confesses that he is a virgin, and she is not only relieved, but surprised that this is his reason all along. In the end Andy and Trish are happily married with all their friends attending the lavish ceremony, there is mention of his action figures making half a million dollars, and of course the newly wed couple consummate, he is no longer a virgin, and in happiness there is a big musical number to "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In". Also starring Jonah Hill as eBay Customer, Final Destination 5's David Koechner as Dad at Health Clinic and Scary Movie 3's Kevin Hart as Smart Tech Customer. Carell gives a good oddball performance as the man who is geeky and desperate to pop his cherry, Keener is sweet as the attractive woman that he has true feelings for and is nervous to do anything with, and the supporting cast, especially Rudd and Rogen are great as the ones giving mixed and useless advice about sex. Obviously if you not lost your virginity you can relate and feel empathy for the lead character, it is not just a funny film mocking this fact, and creating silly and at times bizarre situations relating, but it is a sweet story with a love story and a man trying to take this big step for any person, a fun romantic comedy. Worth watching!