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 | The 40 Year-Old Virgin Director: Judd Apatow Rating: MA Opens Thurs 6 Oct I love Steve Carell. I loved him when he was a correspondent on 'The Daily Show' (brilliant satirical US program that no-one screens here) and I loved him on the US version of 'The Office' (brilliant - and very different - version of the brilliant UK comedy that Channel 10 cancelled after three episodes, because they are special super-geniuses). Even so, when I heard he was making the jump to feature films via a movie called 'The 40 Year-Old Virgin' three terrifying words came to mind: "Saturday", "Night" and "Live". The legacy of US TV comedians jumping to big screen isn't exactly stellar: after all, for every 'Wayne's World' or 'Anchorman' there are forty 'Joe Dirt's or 'A Night At The Roxbury's, so the chances of '...Virgin' being anything more than a pointless stream of dick jokes seemed pretty remote. That said, the fact that the movie was being helmed by Judd 'Freaks & Geeks' Apatow was a vote in its favour, as was the fact that Apatow and Carell co-wrote the script. And the result? Surprisingly, it's genuinely hilarious. Carell is Andy Stitzer, a toy-collecting, tuba-playing, bike riding nerd who works in an electronics store with tortured romantic David (Paul Rudd), stoner dude Cal (Seth Rogan) and total playa Jay (Romany Malco). When they invite Andy to a friendly game of poker and wind up discussing the freakiest things they've ever done with the ladieez, they suss that Andy's never known the pleasures of the flesh in the first of several scenes that had me howling with laughter. So in the best teen film tradition they make it their mission to get Andy laid, cuing a series of all-but sketches that range from the obvious-but-funny (picking up a girl in a bookstore: "You've got to be cool, but also a jerk. Like David Caruso in 'Jade'.") to the genuinely sidesplitting (the soon-to-be-infamous chest waxing scene: "You look like a man-o-lantern."). And yes, as the opening sequence makes clear, there are a lot of dick jokes. Sounds puerile? Surprisingly, it's not. The dialogue is sparkling throughout and there's genuine warmth in the performances. Much of that is down to Carell, who makes Andy a very likeable person: he plays him as a nice guy who missed his window to lose his virginity as a young man and then just kind of factored it out of the equation instead of as a caricature of a pathetic geek. Rudd and Rogan are solid in support (and their "You know how I know you're gay?" conversations will echo around share house loungerooms for years), and if Malco's character is a bit two-dimensional he still carries it off with panache. Jane Lynch is typically hilarious in the small but well-observed role of Andy's boss Paula, and Catherine Keener is perfectly cast as Trish, the woman that Andy eventually falls for. Best of all, just when the treacle looks like it's getting too thick at the film's (ahem) climax, they break convention for one of the best endings in recent memory. If you enjoyed the gags-with-heart mix of 'Wedding Crashers', this will tickle you even more. Carell, you're a freakin' genius.  | |
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