The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)

User Review

• 

  Barneyonmovies

  7 / 10

  WHAT I LIKED: Like most Judd Apatow comedies, 'The 40-year Old Virgin,' takes amusing and often disgusting stereotypes and social norms and ridicules and undermines them. This one in particular is about a quiet and lonely 40-year old called Andy (Steve Carrell) who's never had a proper relationship, and whose workmates ridicule him and vow to "get him some pussy," after learning about it. Over the course of the film however, after a few failed attempts at "getting him laid," his friends all fail to find fulfillment with their toxic ways, and Andy comes to confidently assert that what's important is human connection and a real relationship rather than sex.
  
  It's a bit like 'American Pie,' in that sense, but it's far more touching and engaging because of how it focuses on Andy's inner struggle. It helps of course that Steve Carrell truly is one of the great comic actors, but it's also down to Apatow's writing and direction which isn't afraid to get serious and even tragic when it needs to.
  
  WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: There are times when we're asked to laugh at things that are more sad than they are funny.
  
  VERDICT: A great Judd Apatow comedy that ridicules and undermines toxic male expectations, 'The 40-year Old Virgin,' is both funny and emotionally engaging.

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