The Next Woody Allen?

Rating: 9/10 (10 July 2006)

Steve Carell, Emmy nominee for THE OFFICE and the only actor who came close to stealing ANCHORMAN from Will Ferrell, lights up the screen in THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN, a completely winning and original comedy, co-written by Carell and Judd Apatow, that turned out to be one of the most refreshing and drop dead funny surprises of 2005. Carell and co-writer and director Apatow, have managed to create a comedy that is not only hysterically funny, but undeniably warm and charming. Carell plays Andy, an anal-attentive electronics store salesman who cooks gourmet breakfasts and has an expensive collection of action figures (when you remove them from their original packaging, it decreases their value)who agrees one night to an evening of poker with three of his co-workers (Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Seth Rogan), who manipulate Andy into admitting that he has never had sex with a woman. We then spend the rest of the film watching poor Andy getting really terrible advice from his well-intentioned buddies about the best possible method of "deflowerization." Such a premise would expectedly lead to a smarmy sex comedy, but that's not what we get at all here. Carell and Apatow's razor-sharp screenplay is smart and almost always takes the high road, in the best tradition of the Woodmeister, and every time you think you know where it's going, the story takes a complete U-turn. Catherine Keener, one of Hollywood's sexiest and most intelligent screen presences these days, is sparkling and vivacious, as Trish, the businesswoman and single mom Andy falls for. Rudd has some very funny moments as Andy's buddy who is still obsessing over an ex and Jane Lynch is also amusing as Andy's self-absorbed boss. As I watched this practically perfect screen comedy, which works from start to finish, and remembered that Carell co-wrote it as well as starred, I couldn't help but wonder if Carell is going to be the next Woody Allen. If this winner is any indication of where he is headed as a writer and performer, he is well on his way.