This Is 40 Review

I went into the screening of Judd Apatow's new movie, This Is 40 with high hopes--after all, I'd just read a great review of it from Entertainment Weekly.

I left disappointed.

This is 40 follows two of the characters from Knocked Up, Pete and Debbie (Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann), as they age into middle age and deal with their bratty daughters. Pete's got a fledgling record label with Hipster employees, Debbie owns a shop where Megan Fox wears very little, sells clothes and makes bank for the store.  They seem the perfect suburban California couple and the movie opens on the day of Debbie's 40th birthday.  What follows is stuff that's sometimes funny, sometimes uncomfortable, and mostly confusing.

This is 40 has moments of levity, making jokes out of stuff that real-life couples endure, like when Pete farts in bed and gags Debbie, or using mama-bear type humor to smack down a kid who wasn't nice to their older daughter.  Who hasn't been there?

Leslie Mann is good as Debbie--providing that she meant to play Debbie as a shrew who treats her husband like he's an idiot, and who loves to yell and be generally unlikeable. If that's what turning 40 means, I'll stay 39, thanks.

Paul Rudd is the usual version of himself.  Floppy-haired and loveable.  He also plays Pete as a guy who is smart, but can't stand up for himself and who thinks Graham Parker is the next best thing.  In fact, this is one of the sly winks of the movie.  Pete loves Graham Parker and is excited to have him on his little label that is going bankrupt.  But, even Graham Parker knows no one wants to buy his albums.  (I know you need to Google him.  It's ok, go ahead.)

Spoiler alert: Melissa McCarthy shows up in a cameo role as a mom defending her son and steals the show.

Double spoiler alert: only some of the stuff you see in the trailer on TV is actually in the movie. 

The movie itself, though, meanders and never really has a cohesive plot--it plays like a bunch of little vignettes that sometimes make you laugh.  You never figure out exactly WHAT the story is about until nearly 2 hours in--and apparently it's about hating your parents and changing yourself when you shouldn't. I kept looking at my fiance thinking that the movie should be over, and you can tell where they should be going with the plot...but it takes forever and EVER to get there.  Just resolve the movie, already!  My butt is asleep!

Cut it in half, get a plot that is cohesive, and it would be great. But left as it is, just wait for it to come out on DVD.








Alli

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