Has heart, but it's only moderately funny

Rating: 7/10 (22 August 2005)

Reminds me of the Farrelly Brothers' last few films. It's a comedy that wants to come off as really touching and thoughtful, one that doesn't want to use its pathetic characters for laughs, but then forgets to be especially funny otherwise. The 40 Year-Old Virgin is funny often enough to make it worth seeing, but the laughs are rarely belly laughs. I just never felt satisfied even after its best jokes. It seemed to be pulling some major punches. Scenes go on for a long time without payoff, and other scenes that seem to have golden setups get cut way too short. For example, in one sequence the title character's friends set him up with a prostitute. It becomes obvious from the outset that it's a man, but as soon as that's established, the movie cuts to the next scene. We don't see the virgin try to get out of the situation. We don't see the hooker try to do anything. There's a lot of potential for great comedy there; it doesn't have to be that dirty, either, to be funny. God knows we don't need a second Deuce Bigalow movie in the theaters this weekend. Steve Carell is very good, and all the characters are quite well fleshed out. I wish they would have done maybe a little more with Catherine Keener. She seems like she might be more interesting if we knew more about her. The movie's worth seeing, but wait for video.