The 40 Year-Old Virgin

Review by Jason Gaston

Andy (Steve Carell) is a virgin even though he’s 40 as the title of this movie suggests. His friends get wind of this during a poker game – much to Andy’s chagrin – and then take it upon themselves to get him some action with some easy women. Andy, however, finds himself falling for something more stable and long-term, but can he really please the woman he’s in love with if he’s never done the horizontal bop with a female?

The key to a good and lasting comedy is the ability of the comedy to incorporate dramatic elements into its story. So many comedies don’t seem to get this simple fact, but if you look at the greats from American Pie to even Airplane, there’s a nugget of drama to go along with the laughs.

Sure, anyone can laugh at an idiot like Van Wilder, but for a comedy to truly stay with you, you have to not only laugh but remember the characters as people that you care about. This is the kind of story that The 40 Year Old Virgin tells. You’re going to laugh at Andy getting his chest waxed and getting humiliated every time someone brings up the fact that he’s never been laid, but ultimately you want to see him succeed… or at the very least, find happiness.

The 40 Year Old Virgin is a little dirtier than I thought it would be, but the sophomoric potty and titty humor cleverly conceals the sweet and intelligent comedy underneath. In fact, I was rather impressed by the way that the crudeness in the movie seemed to be on full blast at the beginning, only to slowly and methodically evaporate over time as Andy finds love in the form of Trish (Catherine Keener). It seems that a pure man is only getting purer as he finds his one and only.

The cast of this movie is amazing. Steve Carell is perfect in this role and if the Academy didn’t have Oscars jammed up their own butts, I would say that he would be a shoo-win for a nomination for best actor. Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, and Seth Rogen who make up Andy’s trio of crude buddies are a compliment to the cast as they come off as deep individuals instead of just caricatures as they probably would have been in a lesser movie.

When I was a lot younger, I remember being told about abstinence in junior high. A speaker told us that when people made fun of us for not having sex to simply say, “Hey, what you get I can get any day of the week, but what I got you’ll never have again.” To some extent, I’d say that theme runs true in The 40 Year Old Virgin. Yeah, you’re rooting for the guy but, on the other hand, you’re a little hesitant to see him lose that innocence that he’s got.

What can I say, though? Everyone loves a virgin. This is the funniest movie I’ve seen all year..