enjoyable

Rating: 6/10 (28 August 2006)

Enjoyable self-explanatory film that surfs a tone between ribald new-school US sex comedy and 70s influenced, humanist US indy character study.
There's an interesting article by the filmmakers, who include the lead actor Mr Carrell, in a magazine for screenwriters i saw online. It talks about how they wanted precisely to work that line between those newer more slapstick, ribald films but underpin it with a human story influenced by Hal Ashby and the like... deadpan and concerned ultimately with empathy for characters rather than mockery of them. Well, they more or less pull it off. The script slackens at times and is weakened by the fact that he's not that unlikely to 'get laid' from the off, but then, that's partly their decision not to make him unbelievably weird and geeky.
As a friend said, though, "you can;t imagine a film about a female 40 year old virgin taking the same tone." perhaps she's right. Male sexual inadequacy is amusingly commercial, female undesirability is a whole different kettle of fish.... debate.