Takes Itself Far Too Seriously

Rating: 4/10 (20 December 2008)

I like Judd Apatow's work before "40 year Old Virgin". I LOVED "The Critic," one of my favorite cartoon series ever. Apatow worked on "The Critic" as a producer. That was a light-hearted cartoon which never took itself seriously. He also worked on "The Cable Guy," a dark yet paradoxically goofy masterpiece featuring the insane antics of Jim Carrey, with the incredible Matthew Broderick as his nervous foil. Ben Stiller's direction probably had more to do with "Cable Guy's" incredible humor, writing and acting than Apatow's participation. Now directing on his own, Apatow has guided "40 Year Old Virgin," a film with a premise with great potential, but which takes its message too seriously, and with characters that are not so much goofy as unlikeable and annoying.
Steve Carrel got his start on "The Daily Show" interviewing wackos and weirdos. He is better playing a straight man to guys who fear black T-shirts and Donny Osmond than as an insecure Circuit City worker who hasn't gotten laid. He does his damndest to be a nice guy, a likable virgin with a heart of gold, but his dippiness and naiveté is a far cry from the talents of Jon Lovitz and Jim Carrey. He's simply too sweet and innocent, with no goofy or quirky traits to make him interesting for a comedy. A better actor would have brought fire to this role. Carrel simply doesn't have it.
There are not enough goofy situations. At least another sex farce, "Deuce Bigalow," had 500-lb women with ravenous appetites and giants, whose heads are above the screen, which lends a sense of the absurd to what is supposed to be a comic film. The women in "40 Year Old Virgin" are simply too ordinary. Leslie Mann plays a drunk woman, but not a very funny one. She seems too realistic, and it's more disturbing than funny to see her swerve her car around and puke in Steve Carrel's mouth. Her mood swings from happy to depressed are not funny. The beautiful Elizabeth Banks plays a nymphomaniac who works at Barnes and Noble, but again she isn't very funny. Marisa Coughlin in "Freddy Got Fingered" (a film reviled by many, but I don't care what the critics think. Shut up!) played a nymphomaniac who was ridiculous to the nines, complete with a childlike demeanor and a masochistic bent. Banks's version of the same stock character has little quirkiness or silliness. All she does that's supposed to be funny is to make Carrel nervous. Ah, then there's Catherine Keener's character, the so-called girl-who's-"right" for Carrel. She is not funny at all, but seems rather creepy as a pushy single mom who forces Carrel to sell his beloved action figure collection. She tries to CHANGE poor Steve, and we actually feel for Carrel when he calls her out on her attempts to change him. Nothing a man hates more than a woman who imposes herself on him.
Then there are the obnoxious co-workers Carrel has to deal with. They're pushing for Carrel to get laid, but never have I seen a bunch of more unlikeable jerks than this group. They are not funny. They are mean, smug, arrogant, lazy, and obnoxious, with no attempt to be funny. Simple meanness and arrogance is not funny. The characters are supposed to play off of Carrel's sweetness, but since Carrel's character isn't that interesting to begin with, we get little to play off of.
Finally, Apatow seems to take the message of Carrel getting laid far too seriously. The scenes between Keener and Carrel are mawkish and sentimental. Kenner screaming at her teenage daughter, and Carrel's attempts to teach her about sex at a high school meeting seem like they would be better off in a Lifetime Original Movie. Carrel feeling self-pity and drowning his sorrows with drink is more pathetic than funny.
Can this be the same Judd Apatow who collaborated on "The Critic" and "The Cable Guy?" Judging from the following movie, the equally too-serious "Knocked Up," I suspect he's changed for the worse. Apatow has left his quirky roots behind to guide his films for a mainstream crowd who likes sentimentality. I hope his next projects are more grounded and have more wackiness to them.