The 40 Year-Old Virgin

[rating:4]

Director: Judd Apatow
Cast: Steve Carell, Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Seth Rogan, Elizabeth Banks and Kat Dennings

Steve Carell is exactly what the title says – closer to mandatory retirement age than the onset of puberty, and still has not gotten laid. The danger with this concept would be the temptation to turn it into a one-note gag with a pathetic loser as its butt. Cowriter Carell, who created his character of Andy in a series of sketches for the Second City comedy troupe, brings a much more nuanced touch to this film, without sacrificing the wild humor that the occasion calls for.

Andy, an introverted loner, finds himself playing poker with the guys – coworkers at the Circuit City knockoff where he works. This trio of young men about town do what apparently all men except the ones I know do, recounting in a little more detail than necessary their sexual escapades. Carell is very funny doing his best to make up plausible tales of his own studhood, failing pretty thoroughly, until his buddies realize, to their amazement, that they have a virgin on their hands. So they make him their project: They are gonna get him laid.

Awkward social situations ensue. Carell acts on the advice of ladies’ man Jay (find a really, really drunk girl), stoner Cal (just keep asking her questions) and “sensitive” romantic David (“You like her? Then you definitely don’t want to call her”). But as we listen to the advice, and learn about the lives, of Andy’s friends, we brush up against the darker side of relationships: heartbreak, infidelity, unrequited love, jealousy, bitterness, flat-out stalking. We see that being a player has as many drawbacks as not being in the game. And that’s where the film starts to make its mark: Though getting Andy laid is the ostensible goal of the film, the movie is really about relationships, and Andy isn’t the only one who has to work some things out.

Catherine Keener enters as Andy’s love interest and, as always, she’s terrific, helping Carell anchor the whirlwind of silliness. It’s always a difficult balance in this kind of story: The girl who eventually falls for the inept hero has to be attractive and likable, so we’ll want them to get together, but if the gulf between them is too ridiculous, the film feels less believable. Keener is pretty, intelligent and fun, but she has her problems, and we root for her and Andy to work out their relationship and hit the sack.

The film’s one formulaic misstep is the mandatory disaster of romantic comedies, the thing I harped about in reviewing “Must Love Dogs” — the screenwriters have to get the potential lovers together, and just as we see they’re perfect for each other, the characters must be torn apart by some dumb obstacle so that they can get into ever-more-dire situations and we can have a third act. Here, you can see that hackneyed plot development being trotted out, but it’s handled in a much less contrived fashion than in “Must Love Dogs,” and doesn’t mar the film.

The humanity of Carell makes the movie. There are a few stereotypical nerd props grafted onto his character – an extensive collection of mint-in-box action figures, for starters, and framed comic books on the walls (apparently “Fantastic Four” was expected to be the hit of the summer, with FF stuff in the background of almost every shot in Andy’s apartment). And while Andy is comically inept in talking to or about women, he’s still portrayed as a nice guy, a kind but introverted fellow trapped in a life that has never taught him how to relax with the opposite sex (or anyone, really).

But there is an interesting guy trapped in that shy persona, and as the film progresses, Andy gets better at dealing with women, and people. In scenes with Keener and her family, Carell easily adds progressively deeper layers of wit and kindness to a character that could have just been played as a loser right up to a contrived last-moment redemption. With Keener, Carell brings out a kind of neurotic ineptitude reminiscent of Ben Stiller in … well, almost everything. Watching the gentle unfolding of Carell and Keener’s relationship is a delight – everyone’s first love should be this sweet, if not this belated.

And every romantic comedy should do this good a job of combining wild comedy, clever relationship moments and well-rounded characters, adding a solid cast (particularly Romany Malco as lady-killer Jay, and Kat Dennings as Keener’s teen-aged daughter) and smooth pacing.

Tags: comedy, judd apatow, steve carrell