Review: This Is 40

Review: This Is 40

This Is 40 is a bad movie. 

Now, that's not to say it isn't at all funny or entertaining. As a Judd Apatow production, it is of course going to be a combination of the two. The problem is its lack of an end goal. A movie should work towards something - a resolution, a finale, a final struggle to defeat the conflict. This Is 40 has no such feature, and instead is simply a humongous script which plods along with no particular purpose. 

40 Year Old Virgin had a finish line (Steve Carrell attempting to pop his cherry); Knocked Up spent its running time excitingly leading up to the birth of Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl's baby; even Anchorman for all its insanity was consistently developing its characters towards its climax.

In short, This Is 40 would have fared much better as a sitcom with perhaps 5 or 6 episodes rather than a movie which outstays its welcome tremendously. 

I'm sure while writing his screenplay, Apatow was under the impression that he was highlighting the sweetly amusing arguments, denials and problems that come with reaching the mid-life crisis age of 40, but what we end up with is a long slog filled with sloppy comedy and precious little plot to speak of despite a brilliant lead performance from Paul Rudd and some inspired celebrity cameos. 

Set five years after the events of Knocked Up, we rejoin two of its supporting characters, Debbie (Leslie Mann) and Pete (Rudd), a married couple who are both about to "celebrate" their 40th birthdays in the same week. With the aid of their daughters (played by Judd Apatow's real-life daughters Maude and Iris) they prepare to throw their birthday parties, but with Pete's record label about to go into bankruptcy and Debbie's clothes store failing to make profit, hitting their latest milestone might be the least of their worries. 

There are also some other very loose plot strands regarding Pete's relationship with his money swindling father, as well as Debbie's distance from her own dad. The problem is that most of these excess storylines never really amount to anything more than a hurried conversation, and in fact most of the narrative (particularly regarding Pete's record label) is forgotten about come the film's conclusion.

In the film's favour, there are interesting characters aplenty and some fantastic performances to boot. Paul Rudd is outstanding as Pete, as likeable as always and absolutely hilarious. Chris O'Dowd and Jason Segel are also welcome additions to the cast, the latter reprising his role from Knocked Up to effectively bridge the gap between the two comedies, and Megan Fox, Albert Brooks and John Lithgow also ensure that familiar faces keep us interested. 

On the flip side though, Leslie Mann shouts and screams her way through the film as usual, providing nothing but headaches and annoyance in her role as Debbie; call it a fault with the script or with her performance, but perhaps Apatow is simply too scared to tell his real-life wife that shrieking and over exaggerating every word isn't good acting.

Some of the celebrity cameos are fantastic, however - Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day easily has the best one, insulting Chris O' Dowd with perfect comic timing, while Melissa McCarthy of Bridesmaids fame has her own brief moment in the spotlight.

Yet while the acting is good and there are some entertaining faces, the story (or lack thereof) begins to drag severely after the first hour. To be honest, This Is 40 feels much more like a director's cut than the theatrical edition, and it's easy to tell that most scenes were ad-libbed again and again purely for Apatow's pleasure. The whole project feels like a self indulgence trip for the director, almost like a Greatest Hits of his best styles and while it seems like an admirably personal film for him, at times it also feels as though he is simply filming a day-in-the-life feature rather than a movie. 

Still, there are some genuinely touching and funny moments and, despite the fact that it's overstuffed and overlong, there's something sweet about This Is 40 that will stay with you after you (finally) leave.

Summary

This Is 40 has all the ingredients to be a hilarious, hard-hitting journey into the truth and acceptance of middle age but unfortunately writer/director Judd Apatow has thrown too many of those ingredients into the mixing pot, resulting in a muddled narrative with no particular aim. Still, brilliant performances from the likes of Paul Rudd and the supporting cast ensure that the movie isn't totally boring but it definitely would have fared better with some more time in the editing room. It's okay, but suffers from typical indulgent Apatow syndrome - this is 40 minutes too long.

5/10 - Mediocre

See it if you liked: Knocked Up (2007), Funny People (2009), Friends With Kids (2012)