A masterclass in raunchy humor with a touch of class and humanity

Rating: Null/10 (30 March 2009)

Sure, Kevin Smith did Judd Apatow before Judd Apatow did it. Sentimental relationship drama surrounded by raunchy dude humor. However, as much as I like some of Smith's movies, Apatow is in a whole other league, and makes a much more successful argument for sex jokes and excessive swearing being a valid form of comic expression. We talk about sex all the time, it's in our nature, yet somehow comedy heavily focused on the subject is relegated very often by major, respectable critics and more highbrow audiences to the lowest of the low. In 2005, by making a sex comedy centered on a 40 year old (virgin) and with a female love interest played by a 46 year old, Judd Apatow made the sex comedy respected again. Thanks to critical raves from places you'd never expect them from and an appreciative audience and successful theatrical run, admitting to liking "The 40 Year Old Virgin" doesn't make you an idiot, apparently.
Of course Judd Apatow already had quite the cult audience thanks to the seminal teen drama "Freaks and Geeks", which puts to shame any other exploration of teenage angst, and remains one of the sweetest, classiest TV shows ever made, and his several other notable projects. "The 40 Year Old Virgin" has a great screenplay. I see no reason to dispute that claim. It's a tight, well-crafted story, the central characters are well-developed for the most part (and the tertiary, deliberate caricatures are also brilliant thanks to perfect delivery of perhaps iffy dialogue), and there is a perfect harmony and balance between the comedy and the drama.
But let's boil this thing down to a simple sex farce. On that level it is, honestly, quite brilliant. As stated before I find it an absolutely idiotic idea that sex is so frequently seen as a childish, juvenile subject for comedy, given how it is not only a driving force in the lives of many of us, but generally the one thing which connects us as a species, and, though debatable, probably really the main purpose of our existence: to procreate and reproduce. Simple biology. Now, of course, sex jokes can become exceptionally dull and tiresome, but Apatow is brilliant at creating an aesthetic where the vulgarity doesn't overwhelm the story. "The 40 Year Old Virgin" contains vulgarity, but is not a vulgar movie. The conversations are real, they're funny because they're real, they're funny because they are occasionally very fresh, they're funny because they are grounded in an emotional story for these characters.
They are also funny because the comic timing of the cast is flawless. Seth Rogen, not really just being Seth Rogen on autopilot here (it's a slightly different character than his others if you think about it), is terrific and he's the weak link the film. Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Jane Lynch, Gerry Bednob, Elizabeth Banks, and oh my lord Steve Carrel are absolutely, absolutely PERFECT here. Credit to them, but credit to Apatow as well as a director for getting them to do such amazing work. There's not one line that's even a tiny bit off. Apatow's visual sensibility also really helps. There are actually several bits of extremely clever film-making here, and just when you think he could be losing you he pulls something off again which makes you rethink that.
Where "The 40 Year Old Virgin" fails is, as far as I'm concerned, in the clumsy climax of the film. It's not really funny, it suddenly becomes very typical and obvious, and what Apatow chooses for the final scene just didn't work for me at all, although it probably gets praise from a lot of people just for being different. I thought it lazy and unfunny. But it doesn't really matter because until the final five minutes "The 40 Year Old Virgin" is a comedy masterclass. Perfect writing, perfect direction, perfect comic timing. It contains no great insights into human nature, but is a phenomenal, phenomenal example of its craft. I'll have to see it again before deciding, but this might be one of my favorite movies. I have almost no interest in the sillier stuff Apatow does ("Walk Hard", "Zohan", etc.), but I can't wait for "Funny People".