Movie Review: The 40 Year Old Virgin

8/10

There's so many ways this movie could be appalling.

It could have gone for the main character as spotty greasy nerd with no social skills, but instead imbues is lead with a genuinely believable likability.

His quest to get the girl could have been uniformly crude, obvious and graphic, but instead it is more enjoyable and even, at the very end, strangely touching.

It might have had all the laugh-free gross out qualities of lame fare like Scary Movie, or in fact any film with a title in the " (noun) movie" format. In fact its humour comes from unexpected quarters, not the protagonists obvious ignorance in lovemaking, but from his relationships with those around him - and their journeys are as interesting as that taken by Andy (Steve Carell)

The supporting cast could have been obvious, selfish, two-dimensional or wooden. They are anything but. We have one of the most accomplished casts in modern comedy - Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Seth Rogen (admittedly playing that Seth Rogen character) and Jane Lynch all add such skill to smallish parts that they lift the film up to next level.

Jane Lynch in particular as Andy's amorous boss is an absolute dream. Since Lynch is capable of reading a eulogy and making it funny she has outrageous fun with with her uber-creepy dialogue - at one point delivering a short piece of dialogue so perfectly I woke up the baby next door with my laughing (don't tell the dad, please, it took an hour to calm her down).

The dialogue in question, for those who have seen the film, was the "I'm very discreet" section culminating in some nasal acting... genuinely laugh out loud funny.

Catherine Keener is also excellent in what is on the face of it an unforgiving, unfunny part (the woman of his dreams? YAWN!) lending a sense of fragility and ridiculousness to the character while still making her believable as someone you might fall in love with.

Paul Rudd, too excels in the role of dumped lover, totally in denial about the failed romance that ended years ago.

But this is Carell's movie, and luckily we have the good side of Steve4 here - pathetic but sympathetic, slightly dopey yet likable, odd but believable. He has taken pains, clearly, to mould this character in the image of his standard fare. While this role doesn't take him out of his comfort zone, I do see him pulling a Robin Williams in a few years and adding to his performance in Little Miss Sunshine some more good dramatic roles.

As for the film, 40 Year Old Virgin manages to be silly without being condescending, funny without being overly crude, and touching without being mawkish. I loved it, in a silly way.

A