DVD REVIEW: 40 YEAR-OLD VIRGIN, THE (UNRATED)

I’m oh so very glad that Steve Carell left The Daily Show. Say what you want, but he does good work with his character on The Office and his character moment in Bruce Almighty is one of the few things in that movie that live up to a second viewing. Carell has some comedic stretch, and here in the 40 Year Old Virgin those chops get some good exercise. Carell looks to have a good career ahead of him and I’ll always remember this film where it all began. Onward!

The Flick

Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell) likes to collect action figures. Andy Stitzer works in at seemly satisfying job positioned inside an electronics store (SmartTech). All in all, Andy Stitzer appears to be content with his life.

Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell) is also a 40-year-old virgin.

The warpath to Andy’s “deflowering” begins when he is invited to a poker game by his fellow SmartTech (male) co-workers. Sometime during the poker game it is discovered that Andy is a virgin when Andy himself describes a woman’s breast feeling like… well… I’ll leave that to your personal viewing of the film. With this false knowledge it is clear to Andy’s co-workers that they must set out to change Andy ways and to get him laid. Now that’s the basic premise of the film. Giving away too many other details would ruin many of the film’s jokes for you, so I won’t go much farther than what I’ve said.

"All this booty can be yours if The Price Is Right!"

What I will go into is the outstanding performances in the film, mainly those of Andy’s three co-workers: David (Paul Rudd), Jay (Romany Malco) and Cal (Seth Rogan). Paul Rudd continues to be great (he was even so during his run on Friends) as David, a man slowly becoming lost within his mind over 2 year old broken relationship. (More on that below) Romany Malco is pretty new on the scene in my book and he eats up every scene he’s in. His frenetic energy makes his character of Jay one of the funniest throughout the film. Seth Rogan’s “everyday man” approach to his character of Cal gives the film a good foundation to build its jokes from. The remaining cast is also pretty first-rate, but it’s this core group that helps The 40 Year Old Virgin be one of the funniest comedies I’ve seen in the past 5 years. All of the performances push the characters into seeming as they are everyday people and that’s what nails the sense of reality in this film.

After a number of nights out with his new friends Andy meets Trish (Catherine Keener), a forty-something year old mother of three and owner of the “We Sell Your Stuff on eBay Store” just down the street from Andy’s place of work. Andy’s first interaction with Trish awards him with her phone number and this is where the story of Andy’s “deflowering” really takes off in terms of his interaction with a woman. Once Andy and Trish start dating a pleasant and good-natured story with Trish’s teenage daughter, Marla (Kat Dennings), is underlain throughout the last third of the film. Mind you, there are still many jokes abound from this point in time. Andy’s co-workers seem to take a back seat to the growing relationship between Andy and Trish, but it’s save to say that the crew still has their moments of glory.

And sure the jokes throughout The 40 Year Old Virgin might seem to be juvenile in their nature, but it’s their execution that makes them stellar and outright hilarious at times. Most of the jokes spring from what could be real life situations and many the jokes come from the dialogue itself. Granted there still are a number of physical comedy gags in the film, but it’s the dialogue between the characters that sends you into an unstoppable chuckle. All of the characters seem to have issues and weaknesses of their own and many of these issues are exploited as the film moves along. Paul Rudd’s characterization of David has by far one of the most glaring issues that I think most men can associate with; he has a girl on his mind that he broke up with 2 years ago, only he’s taken it to a level of pure obsession. David’s obsession is drawn out during the wanting to conquer Andy’s virginity. This obsession and David’s slow breakdown helps create many awkward and uncomfortable moments for the characters but also help create many laugh-out-loud scenes for the viewer to watch and enjoy.

Yes, it’s there. Trust me.

The film I feel most comfortable in associating The 40 Year Old Virgin with in terms of tone and subtlety is Office Space. There’s just a sense of reality created in each one of these films that the average viewer can associate with. Whereas Office Space nearly perfectly created and displayed the monotonous nature of work, The 40 Year Old Virgin creates and displays the monotonous nature of life away from work and the ups and sometimes pathetic downs our lives seem to take.

The 40 Year Old Virgin is by far the funniest comedy to come out of the year 2005. I still prefer the theatrical cut over the UNRATED copy seen on the DVD (the pacing seemed to be better in the theatrical showing), but I do welcome a number of nice inclusions sprinkled throughout this UNRATED copy of the film. (Read: boobies!)

9.2 out of 10

What a typical Friday night ends up looking like for me.

The Look

The clarity in my screener copy was quite nice. I would assume it is what one would get when they purchased a retail copy as there were no Universal watermarks on the DVD I received for review. The colors throughout the disc are nice and rich and there is a distinct sharpness to the picture.

9.0 out of 10

The new Uncle Mitch? I vote an ecstatic yes!

The Noise

The dialogue is crisp and clear and the score comes through quite nicely. This isn’t a disc that is going to push the limits of your sound system, but it does a great job supporting what is on the screen.

8.7 out of 10

I usually shout "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!" when doing this.

The Goodies

The cast and crew commentary is a real delight to listen to. There are a number of great stories sprinkled throughout the length of the film and all of the voices are distinguishable, considering the number of people sitting around the microphone. Yet, as the group clearly points out, they start to run out of things to talk about once the third act hits.

Other extra features on the disc include a shortly lived Gag Reel, You Know How I Know You’re Gay? which is basically footage of Rudd and Rogan riffing off for 10 minutes in front of the camera and there is also behind the scenes footage from the hair waxing scene. Also included is Andy’s Fantasies which is a number of scenes featuring Stormy (a porn star) inside Andy’s head as he tries to masturbate. (A scene cut from the film.)

All in all this is a pretty packed single disc.

9.0 out of 10

Deep down inside, you’re thanking me for this!

The Artwork

There’s something about the theatrical poster used here on the cover artwork that never really settled with me correctly. I honestly can’t offer up any alternate suggestions for artwork, so I guess I can say that it’s nice they stuck with the same advertising campaign as before.

7.0 out of 10