Better to abstain from 'The 40-Year-Old Virgin'

Friday, August 19, 2005

By WILLIAM ARNOLD
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER MOVIE CRITIC

As its title implies, "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" is a comedy about a nerdy guy on the cusp of middle-age (Steve Carell) who has never had sex -- a situation that the movie finds so ludicrous and contemptible that it tries to anchor a full two hours of ribald humor on it.

MOVIE REVIEW

THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN

DIRECTOR: Judd Apatow

CAST: Steve Carell, Catherine Keener,Paul Rudd

RUNNING TIME: 120 minutes

RATING: R for pervasive sexual content, language and some drug use

GRADE: C-

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He lives in an apartment that's a museum to his 1980s action-figure collection, he gets around on a bicycle because he neither owns nor can drive a car, he works in the anonymity of an electronics superstore stockroom, and he hasn't dated in decades.

When his co-workers find out about his sexual status, they go on a campaign to rectify it. But when they take him to a singles bar and he picks up a hot woman (Leslie Mann, the director's wife) she gets wildly drunk and vomits in his face.

When they give him a box of pornography, he can't get in the mood to masturbate to it. When they buy him a transvestite prostitute, he balks. And when he finally does get in bed with a suitable partner, he doesn't know what to do with a condom.

If you're an 18-year-old male and have recently consumed a six-pack of beer, you probably will think this is the funniest thing you have ever seen. It's so utterly raunchy it seems to have been designed as entertainment for a stag party.

Producer ("Anchorman," "Kicking & Screaming") turned-first-time-director Judd Apatow brings no cleverness or wit to his one-joke situation, and he can't give it the kernel of credibility that even a low comedy needs to sustain itself for a feature length.

As a star-making vehicle for Carell ("The Daily Show," "Bewitched"), the movie also is a bust. He has a bland but comfortable quality that works in supporting roles and on TV, but, at the center of the big screen, he seems to vanish before our eyes.