Sex Comedy That Keeps Its Trousers On

Rating: 7/10 (18 January 2006)

I would cautiously venture that not many men who have made it into their fifth decade without doing the deed get the opportunity to break their duck with nymphomaniac, hard-bodied, blonde book-shop assistants, busty, wardrobe-malfunctioning speed-daters or, for that matter, Catherine Keener. But the fact that these are the potential partners put in front of our hero here, reminds us that 40-Year-Old Virgin is, first and foremost, a bawdy sex comedy, despite the critical acclaim and hints of depth.
And our hero's name is Andy. He's polite, clean-cut and conscientious, rides around on a bike and collects action figures, but his workmates at the computer store think he could well be a serial killer. One night, during an illicit game of poker on the shop floor, the testosterone is flowing and Andy's swiftly concocted sex tales are less than convincing. His new buddies twig that he's a virgin and decide to help him rectify the situation.
Quickly, the crux is established: For all their bravado posturing, Andy's colleagues are considerably less fulfilled than he is. Wise-cracking Jay (Romany Malco) may act the player, but he is hen-pecked and insecure; David (Paul Rudd) is still pining over a lost love from the distant past; and wild man Cal (Seth Rogen) lurches from day to day in booze-fuelled, over-sexed stupor (OK, so his life may be more fulfilling)
Despite some false starts with an array of unsuitable though aesthetically pleasing women (this IS a sex comedy, if you remember), Andy eventually finds the perfect partner in "hot grandmother" Trish (Keener). Now if only he can get his rocks off
And here's the clever bit. Andy is a grown man. A little repressed, certainly, but he still has the world-weariness of someone who has experienced many of life's petty annoyances. It would have been easier comedically to make him some kind of desperate oaf  a constantly horny dog who humps legs and chases schoolgirls down the street. But if you get to 40 and have never done it, it is likely that you simply aren't that fussed. Steve Carrell plays Andy perfectly with a child-like quality but no sinister perversions.
This can be seen in the very first scene, where he goes about his morning business with a persistent erection. It's a nice parody of Porky's  only here there is no furtive self-gratification, it is just part of the routine. For a puerile concept, this is a film that actually explores sexuality. A bit. Obviously, it loses its nerve on occasion as Carrell lapses into Saturday Night Live mode, but the intentions are good.
Take the time-honoured masturbation scene. Instead of the standard montage of sensitive guy exposed to a barrel-load of smut, mistakes lube for super glue hilarity, Andy can't get into it and ends up chortling contentedly to an innocent episode of Everybody Loves Raymond.
Indeed, these offbeat endings to such telegraphed set-ups are what give the film an edge over traditional preppy skin flicks. The beauty (if that is the right word) of the American Pie franchise, Wedding Crashers et al is that we can see the pay-off (apple pie defilement etc) coming a mile away. Here Carrell's Andy is ambiguous enough to surprise us with the way he handles certain lewdly choreographed scenarios.
It's not all high praise. For starters it is absurdly long for a film of this nature. Some of the scenes in the middle don't go anywhere, and while this adds to the quirky, unpredictable feel, the actual ending (when it finally arrives) is oddly uninspiring. Perhaps this is supposed to represent the inevitable anticlimax of your first sexual experience, which would be an extremely bold cinematic statement, but probably not that bright. Anyway, there follows a bizarre musical post-script that has been cunningly cribbed from every Farrelly brothers movie ever made, and by that stage I was fuming as I had missed most of Match of the Day  so anyone expecting a higher rating can blame it on that.
7/10