Knocked Up is a romantic comedy by Judd Apatow and stars Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogan. The director, the writer and not a few members of the cast are veterans of The 40 Year Old Virgin. Knocked Up is attempting to cash in on the former movie’s success. The film stars Seth Rogan as Ben Stone. Ben is an unemployed slacker who spends his time hanging out with his equally unemployed slacker friends attempting to start an internet business together. Katherine Heigl plays Allison Scott. Allison is a hard working woman recently promoted to anchor for the E! Network. She lives with her sister and her sister’s husband and kids. Allison goes out to celebrate her promotion and meets Ben. After a night of drunken passion Allison ends up pregnant. The film follows Ben and Allison as they figure out each other, their relationship and the coming baby.
Allison decides against the opinions of her confidants to become involved with Ben. As one might expect from a relationship built on the foundation of “be with the father of my baby” a comical mismatch is bound to ensue. There are two side plots worth mentioning. The first is that Allison’s sister has marital problems with her husband. She provides a negative example of marrying the person who gave you the kid. The other major side plot is Seth and company’s attempts to start an internet company which will tell you in what movie and when an actress got naked. Allison’s E! job provides plenty of cameos of actors and friends of the director (I assume) also make small cameos.
Aside from the pregnancy this movie is following a pretty standard romantic comedy plot line. Two people who don’t seem to quite belong together get together, it works for a while, then they stumble before they work it out and all ends happily ever after. As I said this film is trying to cash in on the success of The 40 Year Old Virgin. It doesn’t succeed. Steve Carell’s Andy was a loser but a sweet loser and so the resolution inside a basic comedy was actually quite charming. Seth Rogan’s Ben is not charming; he’s a semi-funny loser that the film desperately tries to convince the audience is sweet.
Ben isn’t sweet. Ben is an asshole. For most of the movie everything that Ben does or says is typically raunchy, inappropriate or just plain unfunny. He then has the unbelievable gall to act surprised when his attempts to woo Allison fail. Ben’s friends are assholes. A group of equally lamentable losers with even less tact and not even the reasonable amount of charm that Seth Rogan brings to his Ben. Even Ben’s father is an asshole. In a cameo, Harold Ramis plays Ben’s father who gives him advice. He gives bad advice and then plays cute when he’s called on it. Their jokes aren’t funny and I had no sympathy for anything they did. Allison’s sister is an asshole (albeit with slightly more reason than most in this film). Allison’s brother in law? Sweet Maria, Paul Rudd may be the biggest asshole in the entire film.
I didn’t buy Ben and Allison’s relationship. It isn’t the beautiful woman falls for funny guy bit (a movie standard), it’s the beautiful woman falls for a guy who isn’t funny, just (say it with me now) an asshole. The movie tries desperately to make you think Ben isn’t really all that bad (I think it fails, miserably). Ben’s miraculous third act turn around (this may be a spoiler but there is always a third act turn around in a romantic comedy) doesn’t make much sense. There is a moment when Allison is watching a movie reminiscing about the good (?) times she had with Ben. The movie? Wild Things. I literally thought what the f*** (Yes I thought asterisks)?
The side plots were tired and played for cheap laughs. If Allison’s sister has the marriage to be avoided, why isn’t it played up more? If in fact it is a model of a dysfunctional but still working marriage, why isn’t it played up more? Truth be told, I couldn’t figure out exactly what it was supposed to be doing. As for the internet company, if you were like me when you heard the idea, you said to yourself aloud (like Mr. Skin?). If you get what I just said you probably watch too much porn. Needless to say Ben’s attempts at financial benefit without real work are in trouble.
There are a few mildly amusing cameos by actors playing themselves. The funniest is probably by Ryan Seacrest (Guess what? He’s playing an asshole!). A later cameo by Steve Carell actually resulted in a character calling him an asshole. I almost thought this could be metatheatric but that would be giving the film maker far too much credit. In the end, the attempt to be saccharine sweet falls flat. I don’t like Ben. I don’t care if Ben ever gets it together. Allison is probably better off without Ben. I wish I had counted the times I laughed in this film because I’m guessing it would be low (some smirks but not a lot of laughs).
Thanks for
A Response:
As I left "Knocked Up" I was overwhelmed by the fear that Rory and I would agree in complete unison regarding this film since, after all, the point of this new blog is for us to disagree. Since this is our first post it just seemed like we were destined to see eye to eye. Lo and behold, my fears were alleviated in no time.
Is "Knocked Up" a masterpiece of comedy? Goodness, no. There's a bit too much pop culture, for one thing. But I enjoyed it thoroughly and several parts made me laugh way, way out loud. As Rory stated, the characters played by Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl are our leads but for my money the counterpoint couple of Pete and Debbie played by Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann are the movie's highlight. In fact, I'll take it a step further. I say this without fear of reprisal.
Leslie Mann deserves an Oscar nomination.
Yes, I thought she was just that good. (Mann, by the way, was the "french toast" girl from "The 40 Year Old Virgin", if that means anything to you.) She's brash and angry and opinionated. She's like a comic version of Mark Wahlberg in The Departed. She's awesome and all alone worth the price of a ticket. The moment when she and Paul Rudd are sitting at the table and she's hurling insults at him and she's staring right at him and he's looking anywhere but at her and she stays locked right on him - that might have been the funniest part of the movie.
No, no, no, the funniest part of the movie is when she confronts the doorman at the night club when he won't let her and her sister in. It's hilarious, and strangely touching, and kind of the moment that I thought summed up the film as a whole.
It's interesting, Rory, that you mention how everyone in the movie is an asshole. I don't dispute your assessment. I find it accurate and also perhaps the point. I think we've all got a little asshole in us. (Well, maybe not all of us but who wants to hang out with anyone who doesn't?) Whenever I think about the possibility of marriage and kids I start freaking out. I kinda' freak out like Paul Rudd. Remember when he indicates his need for "time by myself"? I think that's my #1 worry when I ponder marriage and kids. As those who know me can attest, I need alone time. It's not just that I crave it. I need it. I don't just freak out if I don't get it. I can go into a state of semi-nervous breakdown if I don't get it. So what happens if I get married? And/or have a kid? That alone time vanishes, right? That's a scary thing for me. (My friend Dan once commented that when I get married I would need to get a second apartment solely for the purpose of going there to watch Nebraska Football games.)
Pete and Debbie are often in a state of freak-out. They're are also assholes, yes, but then I can be a little bit of an asshole. Maybe not to this level. But if I got married and lost my alone time?
No one came across to me as a hostile asshole. They're all still lovable assholes. They're assholes that are trying their best, damn it. Even if sometimes (okay, quite often) their best is pretty darn crappy.
Warmest regards, Nick
A Rebuttal:
I agree Nick, every one in life is a little bit of an asshole. Hell, one of my father’s favorite things to say to me in my teen years was “everyone likes a little ass, but no one likes a smart ass.” Okay, so I get the idea that everyone is a little bit of an asshole. But these characters aren’t a little anything. They are whopping huge SOBs. Ad nauseam Ben says and does things to Allison that are unbelievably crappy.
It isn’t the why of Paul Rudd’s freak out that bothered me. I can empathize with your fear of marriage. It’s the how of it. I’m sure my view of marriage is naïve (and someone is bound to tell me so) but I would hope in such a situation I would be man enough to tell my wife I need my space. I might not get it, she might flip out. I really don’t know. And neither did Paul Rudd’s character. He just ran away. Leslie Mann’s character points out she is just as overwhelmed.
I willingly concede that Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd’s performances were pretty good for what they were. The problem for me was determining exactly what they were. It’s clear at times that their marriage is meant as a symbol for Allison. That symbol changed depending on what part of the movie we were at. Some of the early scenes between Mann and Rudd were funny but when it turned darker, those early scenes lost their luster. Suddenly what was a comically dysfunctional couple had become a real marriage in jeopardy. And in that case the humor should go darker. Dark times call for dark humor.
I stick with my assessment of these people. They are hostile. Deep down Ben is saying things because he knows they will hurt Allison or he is doing things that he has to know will hurt Allison. Rudd’s Pete is doing things that he has to know hurt his wife. Ben’s friends are utterly forgettable but they seem like bad people. Leslie Mann is about the only one in this film with any legitimate reason to be pissed off. But being who I am, I know I’ll head right to the theater the next time Apatow and crew release another film, but I’ll be hoping for another 40 Year Old Virgin.
Cheers, Rory
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