With 15 minutes edited out, this could be a contender for best comedy of the year and a possible rom-com classic.
Catherine Keener, always watchable, is left screaming for attention as an insistent pack of testosteroney friends continually interrupt her storyline, reducing both her romantic impact and their own hilarity. But where that balanced sweet and unsavoury, this loses its central romance amid the bodily fluids and flatulence. I even toyed with the idea now and then of going into the attic and looking for that dusty old copy of ‘A farewell to Kings.’ It’s been up there for many a year like a pair of crazy, multi-coloured socks that sit in the bottom of your sock drawer. It’s like an older, yet less mature, version of American Pie. At the film’s centre is a very sweet story about a man choosing to wait for a woman he loves rather than give it up for one of the nymphomaniacs shoved his way. You can see the restaurant again in 1997 Jim Carrey comedy Liar Liar. The nightmarish speed-dating scene, with Andy and his workmates meeting a myriad of women via timed, five-minute dates, is at Bistro Garden, 12950 Ventura Boulevard. It’s in trying to be more that Apatow sadly stumbles. The 40-Year-Old Virgin location: speed-dating at Bistro Garden, Ventura Boulevard, Ventura, San Fernando Valley.
Carell has a natural gift for making the mundane uproarious and remaining loveable throughout (it’s a measure of his charm that his insistence on keeping cherry firmly intact never seems pathetic) that elevates even the basest comedy moments… although two morning-erection jokes is pushing it. A bizarre speed-dating sequence with nipples making bids for freedom and a sly chat-up in a bookshop (preceded by the finest dating advice in history) will bring tears to the eyes, while a squirming, clearly improv’d waxing session will invite multiple howls. This has many a moment of gross-out comedy par excellence, providing all manner of yuk for your buck. When it comes to sex, theres only one sure thing - The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Regardless, if you don’t leave The 40 Year-Old Virgin with a goofy grin playing across your face, it’s time to stock up on Lithuanian fishing documentary DVDs and book yourself a regular slot on Newsnight Review.
This first big project for both men is almost the wonderful movie such a pair should produce - yet it falls just short, strangely hamstrung by an overload of uncontrolled creativity.
Director and co-writer Judd Apatow, the brilliant creator of TV series Freaks And Geeks, equally deserves all the success in the world.
Living alone, 40-year-old Andy spends his free time. Steve Carell, who provided some of the best improv in Anchorman and has risen admirably to the impossible task of filling Ricky Gervais’ shoes in the US version of The Office, should soon be as big a star as Will Ferrell. The 40-Year-Old Virgin Photos View All Photos (61) Movie Info Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell) is an amiable single guy who works at a big-box store.