"The 40-Year-Old Virgin": DVD, Blu-ray Movie Review

(Originally published 2005)

The summer's funniest, most affectionate and - as it happens - dirtiest comedy turns out to be "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," an outrageous movie from Judd Apatow that stars Steve Carell as Andy Stitzer, a doe-eyed neophyte in need of some serious manscaping who has gone a stretch longer than most when it comes to having sex.

The film's opening shot proves that impotency is hardly the reason behind Andy's virginity. When we first see him, he's crossing the screen in a pair of boxer shorts that reveal - how to put this delicately? - a flower in full bloom.

And yet the way Stitzer carries himself belies such boxer short bravado. Shoulders rounded, face drawn, spirit wounded, he shuffles to the washroom in a haze. Outward appearances suggest that Andy could be the big man on campus, for sure, but everything else in his life suggests that somewhere along the way, he lost his way.

His life is consumed with collecting collectibles - the superhero type - as well as comic books, video games and posters of the rock band, Asia. He doesn't own a car - hell, he doesn't even know how to drive a car - and so he rides his bicycle to work, always wearing a helmet, always mindful of the traffic laws.

Andy is the good nerd - the pop-culture pick upon you come to love; his insecurities and neuroses are human and recognizable, which is the key reason the film works as well as it does.
His job at the electronics superstore Smart Tech is joyless dreck, every bit as unsatisfying as his life, but that's soon to change. When his co-workers, David (Paul Rudd), Jay (Romany Malco) and Cal (Seth Rogen), invite him to a game of poker, they stumble upon the root of Andy's angst.

He isn't the serial murderer everyone has always assumed him to be. Instead, he's just a shy, 40-year-old virgin humiliated by his situation. It's a revelation that embarrasses poor Andy, but which gives these emotionally stunted yet well-meaning men reason to get organized. They want Andy to know what they believe - sex is good, sex is your friend - and so it's full speed ahead to turn him into a new age Lothario.

The film, which Apatow co-wrote with Carell ("The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," NBC's "The Office"), is a deceptive sleight of hand. It sounds as if it's purely low-brow, which it certainly is in parts, but not in total. No comedy this consistently laugh-out-loud funny could only be the result of sex jokes - after 10 minutes, they'd lose their punch. The energy would evaporate. Boredom would settle in. Nobody would bother to light up.

Comedy is too difficult to craft, its elements too challenging to get right for its success to be a mere fluke. Purist film enthusiasts will scoff at the idea that a picture so good-naturedly raunchy could also be bright and smart, but "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," armed with an excellent cast that includes Catherine Keener as Andy's willing love interest, proves them wrong. The movie is expertly conceived, acted and written.

Grade: A