The sort of sequel to Knocked Up! An honest tag line, for an honest movie. As a matter of fact it’s probably the most “honest” movie Judd Apatow has knocked up (sorry), in his highly successful career.
Cast your mind back to Knocked Up, remember Pete and Debbie played by Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann (pronounced Less-Lee, get it right for Christ sake). Right; now we’re on track. Basically This Is 40 is a look at their life now as the the dreaded age of 40 arrives for Debbie. Along with her constant denial of her age, the couple try and improve on their personal and professional lives with some hilarious consequences. On the outside it looks like theres not much going on from a story point of view, and you’d be almost correct. But once you get on the inside of This Is 40, which happens quite quickly, there is alot going on where sincerity and hilarity are the norm.
You can’t really fault Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann here. They are very likeable and have a genuine on screen chemistry, which is no doubt improved by their longtime off screen friendship. The real quality of these characters is not in their performance and likeability, but in how relatable they are. It’s a guarantee that audiences will see themselves played out on screen throughout. With a supporting cast that includes the usual Apatow crew including Chris O’ Dowd and Jason Segel, there’s a solid performance all round. That said, a number of roles seem pointless and only add to fatten things up.
Unfortunately things are fattened up a bit too much though. Judd Apatow’s comedies are always quite longer than the usual 90 minuters, but I’ve always felt if he trimmed the fat a bit, he’d be dealing with genuine classic after genuine classic. At times, This Is 40 drags things out a bit too much in particular the middle seems incredibly bloated. And it probably is a little bit too self indulgent for Apatow. Is there anything left on the cutting room floor? But it all comes back to the characters and how relatable they are, and this is the movies ace in the sleeve. There’s plenty of laughs here too with a number of brilliantly scripted scenes involving toilets and iPads and a host more. And for the best part, it’s intellectual comedy, where a clever gag is used where it would be so easy to drop in a gross out piece.
If you’re under 25 you’ll want to get your laughs elsewhere, but if you’re over 25 this is a movie that is incredibly easy to relate to and is bursting with honesty. Ultimately This Is 40 is 20 minutes too long, but is genuinely sweet, sincere, touching, funny and entirely relatable!
