A look at the lives of Pete and Debbie a few years after the events of Knocked Up.
It's not bad, exactly – but it is boring and very rarely funny. This is laboured. This is aimless. This Is 40. It's really quite a grind.
Apatow seems to be offering autobiography as entertainment, but while aiming for blunt honesty, This is 40 is simply dull.
The script is as haphazard as its premise, with the director’s trademark improvisation creating messy scenes – some so long they seem to usher in middle-age.
If you haven’t seen Knocked Up, you’d be better off renting that on DVD, and skipping This Is 40 altogether, because This Is No Fun.
There are some laughs to be had, mostly courtesy of Albert Brooks (as Pete’s irresponsible father) and Apatow’s growing repertory of supporting players (Jason Segel, Melissa McCarthy, Lena Dunham). But this isn’t funny enough or disciplined enough to really connect.
Of course, beneath the cynicism and worry, there is a reliable bedrock of sentimentality, and rather like Nancy Meyers, Judd Apatow takes his characters' material prosperity rather lightly. But this is terrifically assured work from Judd Apatow. And most importantly, funny.
Every scene feels like an airbrushed composite of dozens of rambling takes, and 133 minutes is drainingly long for a story this sitcom-slight.
It's like Scenes from a Marriage rewritten by a hormonally challenged teenager – or else by Judd Apatow. This is horrible. This is purgatorial.
There are some wry laughs and perceptive observations folded into familiar territory of family strife and marital woes but Apatow could use a firmer editor and a tighter control of the tiresome improvisations: this is 40 minutes too long.
As a take-your-brain-out comedy it's fine. It'll make you laugh and smile but it's (ironically enough) about 40 minutes too long, as there's not really enough substance to the plot to keep you engaged.
A real step up for Apatow. His masterpiece? Quite possibly.
While insightful when it comes to relationships and the differences between men and women, This Is 40 is too long and not particularly funny.
With his fourth film as writer-director, Judd Apatow has arguably made his most personal film yet, without forgetting to make us laugh.
Dumb and not entertaining.
Apatow seems to think we know these characters better than we do. But they just don't live or act or talk like us, or any other 40-year-olds we know.
As for Mann and Rudd, it's hard to dislike affable leads so cheerfully willing to forgo their dignity, but you tire of them as you would after a long weekend with perfectly pleasant people you don't really know that well.
Modulating from the comic to the embarrassing (and vice versa) is an essential part of Apatow's strategy and recurs throughout the movie: scenes are rarely terminated at the obvious or easy point.
This is 40: midlife crises in films
General release. Check local listings for show times.
RSS feed of Cinema reviews