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Thursday, December 20, 2012
MOVIE REVIEW
This Is 40
Of A Certain Age, Or A Certain Teenage . . .
Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, Paul Rudd, and Leslie Mann in Judd Apatow's comedy
"This Is 40". Universal Pictures
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
FOLLOW
Thursday,
December 20,
2012
Judd Apatow's comedy
"This Is 40" is more a spin-off than a sequel to
"Knocked Up", and not nearly as
interesting, insightful or funny. Replete with cynicism, bitterness and
the primal scream of a high-pitched whelping dog, Mr. Apatow's film starts with
morning glory for for the married couple Debbie (Leslie Mann) and Pete (Paul
Rudd). Debbie complains about about Pete's well-intended but selfish
gesture. It is her 40th birthday. They have two bickering daughters
(the director's real-life daughters Maude and Iris) who can't stop needling each
other.
"This Is 40" isn't really about being 40 at all. The film is much more
about family, and how we can't completely shake the genetic backbone of
our parents. We see Debbie and Pete talk playfully about killing each
other (all married couples talk about that at some point, right?) Both of
them shriek and are full of anger. Their fathers (John Lithgow and Albert
Brooks respectively) have their own shortcomings, and their kids don't appear to
be much different. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. There's
nothing about being 40 specifically that provokes more than the usual anxieties
that women and men have, and for about five minutes Ms. Mann is able to convey
those, particularly in a doctor's visit. Other than that the rest of the
film involves the physical slapstick and foolishness audiences have become
accustomed to.
There are a wealth of characters in "This Is 40", and nearly all of them,
whether adults, teens or children, are juvenile. Pete and Debbie have a
large circle of friends but they only know one tone: shrill. They don't
respect each other, and Mr. Apatow, whose
"Funny People" had
a hybrid of funny and serious undertones, simply takes any
substance or truth out of "This Is 40", leaving us only with noise and hot air.
I engaged the first hour of this film with hope and even a little admiration (and
fleeting identification) with some of the things that emerge in a loving
relationship between people of a certain age, but after that things rode
steadily downhill. One of them is last year's comedic darling Melissa
McCarthy showing up in a cameo, hastening the film's plunge into
mean-spiritedness and violent language. (Oddly Mr. Apatow thought to
have a gag reel consisting solely of a more spiky, violent talk version of the same scene
in the end credits.)
Mr. Apatow's film, at two hours and 13 minutes is too long and unfocused.
He sticks with everything, but much worse than
that; there's a decided lack of discipline in the scenes, which feel tired
and older than the participants who fret about age. Each episode belongs to a
different film. There's the Debbie-Pete story about getting older and a
gulf between generations, as seen through abundant pop culture referencing with
their daughters. Then there's the single guy friends who both have designs on
one of Debbie's employees (Megan Fox), who is accused of stealing by another
employee (the quirky, amusing Charlyne Yi). If that's not enough, there's
a story about the record company Pete is struggling to keep afloat, and of
the musician Graham Parker (who cameos and seems little concerned about being
past 40.)
I've come to the conclusion that there was a lot on Mr. Apatow's mind
that he wanted
to express but didn't know how or in what order to say it in on the big screen.
There's too much of the uninteresting yelling principals on display and not enough of the smaller
ensemble players. The talented Mr. Rudd gets old as a refrain (the
toilet jokes, the sex jokes) too fast, and Ms. Mann (last year's awful
"The
Change-Up"), who is married to Mr. Apatow, fizzles quickly too, even as Debbie tries
to cross generations and undergo a rebirth. There's a notable scene at a
nightclub where Debbie talks to a younger man who is very interested in her.
I wish Mr. Apatow had let that scene play out a little longer than the
high-voltage acrimony spectacles that are the anthem of "This Is 40".
Those quieter moments of truth and humor are always more interesting, even
insightful -- and, as in many Hollywood comedies -- as soon as something deeper
like that specific scene is
touched, numerous filmmakers tend to quickly pull back, retreating to safety (and denying their
audience something more interesting and thoughtful.)
In other words, the little things in life are more valuable and precious, and
it's too bad that Mr. Apatow abandoned that simple fact to seek out short-handed
comedy which has little more than surface in it. (The photo in this review
may be the only time when the Debbie-Pete family looks at peace.)
Mr. Lithgow is especially good here without trying to be deliberately funny, and
there are moments of natural line delivery from Mr. Apatow's younger daughter
Iris that are good, even if some of the content isn't what you'd expect from a
little girl. (I know my infant daughter simply wouldn't say some of the
things the young, funny Iris does here.)
To have real, authentic comedy in a film requires the element of truth from
which it arises -- hence the phrase "laugh to keep from crying". The
problem is that I mostly cringed instead of laughed at "This Is 40".
Are there elements of truth in the film? Yes, but they are exaggerated to
such a degree that I found myself dismissing them and rarely laughing in the
process. Mr. Apatow, who effectively utilized Adam Sandler's brand of
discomfort comedy to good effect to create something
stronger if not always enduring in "Funny People", can't rouse anything more than
insult-a-minute rancor in "This Is 40".
Most telling is that Chris O'Dowd and Ms. Fox, who are okay here, both appeared in a
much better film earlier this year that hit all the issues and themes in a
sensible, mature and comedic way that Mr. Apatow fails to. The film,
"Friends With
Kids", contains some shouting but not just for the sake of it. The adults
in that film are sometimes sloppy, misguided, bone-headed and self-centered, but
there's a truth and power to the episodes in it, a film well-directed and
written by
Jennifer Westfeldt. Ms. Westfeldt's comedy contained ideas and
issues to think and talk about and consider. There was pain and discomfort
from which the comedy arose.
By contrast, Mr. Apatow's lazy, mega-indulgent film is a shell that is unfinished, caricatured and
empty. "The Comedy", chronicling the loneliness, bitterness and hatred in
its main character, is an effective layering of truth from which its lead
character thinks comedy should arise. Yet Rick Alverson's film is
more real, funny and honest than anything that Mr. Apatow aspires to accomplish.
Also with: Jason Segel, Annie Mumolo, Robert Smigel.
"This Is 40" is rated R by the Motion
Picture Association Of America for sexual content, crude humor, pervasive
language and some drug material. The film's running time is two hours and
13 minutes.
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