To the ever-lengthening list of things that make me feel old may be added the fact that The 40-Year-Old Virgin is observing its 20th anniversary. That’s right, the 40-year-old virgin is now 60, although, spoiler alert, he’s happily no longer a virgin.
Judd Apatow’s feature directorial debut, which he co-wrote with star Steve Carell, felt like an instant classic when it was released in 2005. Although Apatow’s second feature, 2007’s Knocked Up, is almost as good, I still think Virgin is probably the best American comedy film of the 21st century so far. The movie’s two-decade mark is being celebrated with a re-release at AMC and Harkins multiplexes starting this Friday.
Carell plays Andy, the hapless fellow who finds himself in the title state. He’s an amiable, attractive, mild-mannered, tidy sort of guy who, through a reasonably plausible combination of bad luck and unassuming manners, simply never got around to that particular rite of passage. He works at an electronics store, lives alone, and pours himself into toy collecting and other hobbies to distract himself.
Andy’s colleagues (Seth Rogen, Romany Malco, Paul Rudd) figure out his secret, adopt him into their circle, and take it upon themselves to try to arrange his deflowering. Independently of them, he meets Trish (Catherine Keener), a fabulous, divorced woman of around his own age whom he starts dating, “taking it slow” to begin with. Will he close the deal with her before he’s corrupted by his skewed, immature, lecherous pals?
Around this rather sweetly chaste basic premise, Apatow and Carell fill a large canvas of characters, vivid down to the bit players, and some riotous set pieces. It’s one of the more honest depictions I’ve ever seen about how men talk privately among themselves, but even at its raunchiest, the comedy stays character-driven and light on contrivance. Even in the notorious “waxing” sequences, the laughs come largely from the horrified reactions of Carell’s co-stars.
It closes with a musical number that’s a home run. Both comedically and emotionally, The 40-Year-Old Virgin – if you’ll pardon the expression – goes all the way.
