A Cut Above

Rating: 7/10 (25 September 2005)

A winning mixture of middle-aged, sentimental rom-com and gross-out frat comedy, this may be one of the year's most pleasant surprises. It's as if the boys from "Animal House" never grew up. Women are minefields to be picked through or simply nose-dived and are more mature and sexually aware. The 40 year old virgin of the title is Steve Carell, (the David Brent character in the American version of "The Office"), who still harbours notions of romantic love while his workmates deride him for 'putting the pussy on a pedestal'. He finds it in the form of the delectable Catherine Keener, (the sexiest grandmother in the movies), and is more than happy when she suggests they don't consummate their relationship, at least not straight away.
Decidedly non-pc for most of it's length and often very funny in a scatological hit-and-miss sort of way, this marks the emergence of two new comic talents; Judd Apatow and Steve Carell, who co-wrote the film with Apatow directing and Carell taking the lead. Not quite in the same class as "Sideways", (same school of hard knocks), but a cut above most of what passes as American comedy these days.