I first saw a poster for the movie The 40 Year Old Virgin sometime over the summer. At that point I had no idea what the plot would be and I wasn’t really interested in seeing it. After I saw some previews, I thought it looked more interesting than I had thought it would be. I decided that I wanted to see the movie.
**DISCLAIMER**
The 40 Year Old Virgin is a movie that deals with sex and sexual situations. I will be discussing some of those things in this review. Turn back now if a discussion of those things will offend you.
**END OF DISCLAIMER**
Andy Stitzer lived alone in an apartment surrounded by his large collection of action figures. He rode a bike everywhere and worked at a large electronics store. One day a few of his co-workers invited him to play poker with him because they needed more players. The talk turned to sexual experiences and it came out that Andy was still a virgin. He’d had some bad experiences that made him more and more nervous to try again as he got older. David, Jay, and Cal couldn’t believe that Andy was still a virgin and decide they have to do something to get him sexual experience. Andy was reluctant but decided to go along with the plan. He went along with different ideas for him to meet women that didn’t go well. In the meantime he met Trish when she came into the store. He was thrilled when she gave him her number and he had to work out how he was going to handle dating her and telling her that he was still a virgin.
The 40 Year Old Virgin didn’t have a complicated plot. This was a rather simple movie without any major surprises. The movie did turn out to be mostly predictable. I wasn’t upset by that because it still managed to be entertaining. The movie moved along at a good pace without feeling rushed. There was a scene or two that seemed to move a tad slower, but it didn’t make the movie drag. Some serious issues were briefly brought up without being fully explored. The movie really gave a more light hearted look to those issues.
The 40 Year Old Virgin is an adult comedy. People should be able to tell that just from the title of the movie and the rating. This isn’t a movie for children of any ages. It dealt with adult subjects, though not always in an adult manner. Some scenes included crude humor which could offend some viewers. Some sexual situations were depicted in a way that was very funny, like when Andy was trying to figure out how to put on a condom. Probably the funniest scene in the movie involved Andy going to have his chest waxed at the insistence of Jay. Parts of that scene have been in several of the ads, so many people who haven’t seen the movie are probably at least somewhat familiar with that scene. That scene was done without any sort of special effects. Steve Carell actually went through having his chest waxed because he wanted to make the scene believable. Andy’s reactions to the waxing were very funny and even a little surprising. He came up with some unique combinations of curses. The movie made me laugh many times and I do think it was a funny movie. The last few minutes featured the song The Age of Aquarius in a way that I found very funny. Some of the characters did things that were at least somewhat crude for humor. Some of the jokes and humor could offend people. This isn’t a movie for everyone. There was a lot of swearing throughout the movie, including the use of slang terms for body parts and sexual acts.
Sex was important to the overall plot of the movie. It started by showing Andy dealing with a morning erection. There was another scene that dealt with that later in the movie as well. The scenes were done with humor. At one point David gave Andy a box full of porn movies. A few short scenes from the porn movies were briefly shown. There was a small amount of female nudity in the scenes. It was clear that the porn scenes were depicting intercourse. The scene was made funny when Andy set out to watch a porn movie at home when he seemed to be preparing like he would be spending a romantic evening with a woman, complete with candlelight. In one scene a few adult toys were shown and joked about. Andy and a few of the other male characters turned up shirtless a few times. That was it for male nudity. Andy was shown in some different sexual situations over the course of the movie. The scenes really weren’t that graphic for the most part, but they could offend some viewers who don’t like to see those sort of scenes. After Andy and Trish started to date, they did share some of the sexual situations. They were mostly just shown kissing.
Andy was the main character and most developed. The entire movie basically revolved around him and his attempts to have sex. He was a nice guy that some people may consider a nerd because of his huge collection of action figures and video games. His co-workers really didn’t know anything about him until they invited him to join the poker game. He had tried to have sex when he was younger but things kept going wrong which made him nervous to try again. Steve Carell was very good in the part. He portrayed Andy in a way to make him likeable and not pathetic. He had a smaller part in Bewitched. Trish was a divorced woman with three children and one grandchild. Andy wasn’t turned off by the fact that she was a grandmother. It was nice to see that he actually preferred Trish to the younger women his friends tried to push him at. She seemed to be a kind woman. She ran her own business that consisted of her selling items on eBay for other people. She ended up being very important to the plot but she wasn’t as developed as she could have been. Katherine Keener was good as Trish. She had a more serious role in The Interpreter. David, Jay, and Cal worked with Andy at the electronics store. They all had different ideas for how Andy should get a woman. David was hung up on an ex-girlfriend and that did influence his advice. The actors were fine in the parts, though none of them really stood out.
CAST
Steve Carell - Andy Stitzer
Katherine Keener - Trish
Romany Malco - Jay
Seth Rogen - Cal
Paul Rudd - David
Judd Apatow - Director
I really enjoyed The 40 Year Old Virgin though I do realize that it isn’t a movie for everyone. This definitely isn’t a movie for children or anyone that is offended by movies that deal with sexual situations.
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