CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 06/01/07

Knock-Out

By danny munso

The writer-director of The 40-Year-Old Virgin returns with a touching and hilarious look at what happens when two strangers work to turn an unwanted pregnancy into a serious relationship, and succeeds at making a comedy that seems destined to be a classic.

Knocked Up

Judd Apatow (also directed)

Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) is a loser. Thanks to an insurance payout from the postal service, he doesn't need to work and instead passes the time getting high with his buddies (Jason Segel, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, and Martin Starr) and planning their upcoming website, FleshoftheStars.com. He's a loser, but he does get lucky as he drunkenly hooks up with Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl), a girl who is out heartily celebrating her promotion at the E! Network - and who couldn't be further out of Ben's league. Eight weeks later, Alison comes to the horrifying discovery that she's pregnant, Ben is the father, and she wants to keep the baby. Alison also wants to give Ben a chance, thinking that, just maybe, her one-night stand could end up being Mr. Right after all.

Knocked Up is written and directed by Judd Apatow, who has had a hand in some of the funniest films and TV shows of the past 15 years, whether HBO's classic The Larry Sanders Show or Apatow's 2005 directorial debut The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which made a household name out of co-writer and star Steve Carell. Virgin surrounded Carell's sweet and shy Andy with three of the raunchiest characters ever put on film, creating laughs that came at you a mile a minute. But while The 40-Year-Old Virgin may be the funnier of the two, Knocked Up is simply the better film.

The key to Knocked Up is Apatow's strength in writing great characters that feel genuine and though he may sometimes place them in extraordinary situations, they always react in realistic way. In between the huge laughs and completely inappropriate discussions (such as Ben and his Jewish pals exalting a certain revenge thriller: "If any of us get laid tonight, it's because of Eric Bana in Munich!"), Apatow takes his time and allows you to fall in love with this oddest of couples and to root for them to work out this very different kind of love affair. More than the comedy, it's the sentiment that sticks with you. Without any personal knowledge to speak from, the film seems to take a realistic—sometimes excruciatingly so—look at the fears of becoming a new parent, whether you wanted the kid or not. By contrasting Ben and Alison's plight with that of Alison's sister Debbie (Leslie Mann) and her husband Pete (Paul Rudd), we get different views on relationships, and how children affect a marriage and relationships (even nascent ones).

Another of Apatow's talents lies in his ability to create situations and lines of dialogue that are inherently funny, but which also move the story forward. Early on, Ben goes on a biting rant about Alison's first on-camera interview in her new position at E! ("You know what's interesting about Matthew Fox? Absolutely nothing.") It's a great moment—unless you're a Matthew Fox fan of course—but it's really there to give Alison doubt that Ben is the guy she hoped he was and wants him to be. This is a big moment in her career, and Ben just makes a joke about it.

Another sequence perfectly balances the film's crude, sophomoric sense of humor with Apatow's heartfelt thoughts on marriage and parenthood. After their significant others have left them, Ben and Pete decide to take an impromptu Vegas trip, complete with lines from Swingers and Pete's bag of hallucinogenic mushrooms. The two decide to take their drugs before watching a Cirque du Soleil show that, inevitably, freaks them out. At first, the whole mushroom gag seems beneath Apatow and the film, a scene that somehow slipped in here from some direct-to-DVD sequel to Road Trip. But later, while they're still tripping in their hotel room, Ben and Pete begin discussing their relationships. It's here that the conversation becomes genuinely touching.. When Pete admits that "the worst thing about my marriage is that she wants me around more," it's the first time in a while that a comedy has managed to be funny and poignant in the same sentence.

If the script has a weak point, it's that, for a romantic comedy that stretches 129 minutes, parts still feel a tad rushed. The movie features two montages, the first featuring the early goings of Ben and Alison's relationship and the second showing Ben getting back on his feet, moving in to a new apartment and a new job. The sequences are fun and effective but seem to be placeholders in lieu of scenes where we can judge the character's progress for ourselves. It would have been more satisfying to see Ben go after his new job, rather than suddenly have him sitting at a desk. But, again, these are minor quibbles for a script that does an admirable job packing nine months into one film.

Writer-director Judd Apatow's script succeeds in combining the honest sentimentality of a romantic comedy with gross-out, Animal House-style laughs, creating a unique hybrid that not only makes Knocked Up 2007's best comedy to date—it also makes it the year's best film, period.

Knocked Up

Universal Pictures
Rated R; 132 min.

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Danny Munso graduated from film school in 2004 and can currently be found on his computer working on one of his many half-written screenplays. Or, more likely, he's on the Internet checking the scores of his beloved Bay Area sports teams.

Knocked Up courtesy Universal Pictures

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