Wow. First off, I had no clue it’s been twenty years since The 40 Year Old Virgin released in theaters, but after seeing it, there’s no mistaking it for a 2005 comedy. My asshole was clenched in a few places, but overall, I was relieved. There were only one or two audience-killing ‘jokes’ that landed like a thud, but it’s still a laugh-out-loud funny film.
Tale as old as time; a man is traumatized as a teen/young adult and because of that, winds up as a forty-year old virgin. Happens all the time, in every city. Research suggests every twenty seconds, another forty-year old virgin is born… There’s another! Anyway, word at work gets out that Andy (Steve Carrell) is the titular forty-year old virgin, and his co-workers at SmartTech decide to intervene. He resists (over and over and over…), but finally relents when he meets the charming Trish (Catherine Keener). After a near-death experience, he finally reveals to her that he’s a virgin. They get married (like good God-fearing Christians) and consummate their marriage. The end.
incoming diatribe
There’s a scene in this film that was pretty standard in mid-aughts comedies. Andy (Steve Carrell) gets in the car with a very drunk Nicky (Leslie Mann). Once he gets the car started with a quick breathalyzer test, proving he’s completely sober (which is a problematic topic for another diatribe), they’re on the road. Missy Elliot’s “Get Ur Freak On” starts up and Nicky starts singing along. We’re then given a staple of the mid-aughts comedies, the radio sing-along. This trope’s claim to fame has to be from White Chicks where Terry Cruise sings along to Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles”.
It got me thinking, when was the last time I listened to the radio? It has to have been years at this point. I just plug in my phone and open Spotify or my podcasts app. I have complete control over my music choice, I refuse to leave it to chance with the radio. But we miss out on that feeling when you have your favorite radio station on (mine was always 97.9 The River) and a song comes up that you haven’t heard in years. There’s a feeling of surprise and joy that washes over you, and you crank that radio up so you can feel the music. I remember scanning through the radio, stumbling on new channels that would get a coveted spot on my 6-channel preset menu.
I think the fall of radio has a lot to do with where we are as a society. We have so much control over our lives. The entirety of the internet and up-to-the-minute news is always at our fingertips. We don’t have to switch over to the AM radio to get our news. If you want to listen to “808s and Heartbreak” you can tell your phone to start playing it, there’s no calling in to KISS FM’s request hour just so you can hear it.
Maybe this isn’t a bad thing, and I’m just nostalgic for a time when the world felt more elusive and awe-inspiring. But do we need to exert complete control over every aspect of our life down to the exact song we listen to at any given moment? Isn’t there something freeing about giving yourself over to the universe? To let go of it all?
end diatribe
As is the style with the Apatow comedies, The 40 Year Old Virgin overstays its welcome. There’s no reason a comedy needs to be over ninety minutes, let alone pushing two hours. It’s not a question of which scene to cut, but a question of when to cut a scene. Every shot just goes and goes, which works in some places (Jane Lynch’s monologue about her paramour gardener was particularly hilarious), but has me impatiently tapping my foot in others. I understand some of the best jokes are improvised, but I don’t need to watch the actor find their way to the joke over five minutes. It feels like Apatow was being too precious with the set ups to jokes, like he wanted us to see his process.
Where this film succeeds is its casting. I think this is the last great character by Steve Carrell. Sure, Michael Scott will forever live in infamy as the immature boss from The Office, but here he’s really digging in deep to find Andy. It’s nuanced. He avoids eye contact with people, his gaze is always aimed at the floor, he keeps an overly professional demeanor at work; it’s all very real. You can see thought and research went into his character. He’s a man who decided sex wasn’t for him, so he retracted from society completely.
The film is filled with amazing bit-players; my favorite is David Koechner, the father who walked in on his son “doing things that are illegal in Alabama”, he’s not mad, he just wants to know how to get his wife to do that. I love when David Koechner shows up in stuff. The smaller the role, the better because he’s a strong spice to add to a film; you add too much Koechner and he overpowers everyone in the scene. There’s a great scene with a young Jonah Hill, Jane Lynch as I mentioned kills it, Gerry Bednob kills it as the firey Mooj. This film really shines with it’s tertiary characters.
The third act is where this all dissolves like wet toilet paper. Andy is in a relationship with Trish, and is avoiding sex at all costs. The day where they agreed to have sex finally comes, and Andy freaks out. He bikes away as fast as he can and meets up with his friends at a nightclub. He goes home with Beth (Elizabeth Banks) and is about to hook up with her when all of his friends appear at Beth’s house deus ex machina. He then bikes home to find Trish already there. She thinks he’s a pervert after seeing the box of porn David gave him and drives off. He chases after her on his bike, and winds up flying through a billboard truck where he finally confesses he’s a virgin.
See what I’m seeing? it’s so needlessly complicated. Obviously they wanted to do a car chase, the discovery of the porn is just a vehicle (ha) to facilitate the chase, but why bring Beth back into the equation? Why not save us the ten minutes and have Trish chase the fleeing Andy and make that the chase scene? It’s such a bloated movie, there’s no need to stretch the runtime any more than it is.
The 40-year-Old Virgin is a fun time-capsule not only of the mid-aughts, but of mid-aughts comedies. The film ends with huge musical number set to “Age of Aquarius”. RANDOM! There’s transphobic jokes, people are wearing dumb hats, everyone works in a big-box electronics retailer and are selling VHS-DVD combo players to go with CRT TVs. The nostalgia of it all is like sinking into a warm bath. I laughed, I cringed, I checked my watch. If you have any fondness for the film, go check it out in theaters while you can.
rating
3/5 (adjusted for inflation)
who should see this movie?
- men whose body hair could be considered a sweater
- Virgins, 40 years old and up
- People that want to see Paul Rudd’s ass on 30 TV screens at once
- Fans of The Million Dollar Man action figures
- Incels
- Former Circuit City employees
- Bicycle enthusiasts
