| The 40-Year-Old Virgin | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
|
| Directed by | Judd Apatow |
| Produced by | Judd Apatow Shauna Robertson Clayton Townsend Seth Rogen Steve Carell |
| Written by | Judd Apatow Steve Carell |
| Starring | Steve Carelll |
| Music by | Lyle Workman |
| Cinematography | Jack N. Green |
| Editing by | Brent White |
| Studio | Apatow Productions |
| Distributed by | Universal Studios |
| Release date(s) | August 19, 2005 |
| Running time | 118 minutes 133 minutes (unrated version) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English Spanish |
| Budget | $26 million[1] |
| Box office | $177,378,645[1] |
The 40-Year-Old Virgin is a 2005 American buddy comedy film about a middle-aged man's journey to finally have sex. The film was written and directed by Judd Apatow and co-written by its lead star, Steve Carell, though the film itself features a great deal of improvised dialogue.[2] The film received its general North American theatrical release on August 19, 2005 and was released on region 1 DVD on December 13, 2005.[3]
Contents |
Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell) is the eponymous 40-year-old virgin. He lives alone, collects action figures, plays video games, and his social life seems to consist of watching Survivor with his elderly neighbors. He works in the stockroom at an electronics store called SmartTech. When a friend drops out of a poker game, Andy's co-workers David (Paul Rudd), Cal (Seth Rogen), and Jay (Romany Malco) reluctantly invite Andy to join them. At the game, when conversation turns to past sexual exploits, Andy desperately makes up a story, but admits his virginity when he compares the feel of a woman's breast to a "bag of sand". Feeling sorry for him (but also generally mocking him), the group resolves to help Andy lose his virginity.
Throughout the next several days, the gang’s efforts prove to be unsuccessful, partly because all three men give Andy different and sometimes contradictory advice. Later, Cal advises Andy to simply ask questions when talking to women, which makes Andy seem mysterious. His advice proves to be the most helpful, when Beth (Elizabeth Banks), a bookstore clerk, takes a liking to Andy. Andy starts to open up, and begins to form true friendships with his co-workers. David continues to obsess over his ex-girlfriend, Amy (Mindy Kaling). After meeting her unexpectedly during a speed-dating event attended by the group, he has an emotional breakdown while making a sale and is subsequently sent home by store manager Paula (Jane Lynch), who promotes Andy to fill in for him. Jay, seeing Andy's continued reluctance to approach female customers, attempts to force the issue by hiring Andy a prostitute. When Andy discovers that Jay has inadvertently hired a transvestite, he is prompted to confront his friends, and tells them that he is taking matters into his own hands. Andy lands a date with Trish Piedmont (Catherine Keener), a woman he met on the sales floor who owns a store across the street. After Andy and Trish's first date, in which they are interrupted by Trish’s teenage daughter Marla (Kat Dennings) as they are about to have sex, Andy decides to tell Trish he is a virgin. Before he can tell her, Trish suggests that they postpone having sex, to which Andy enthusiastically agrees; they decide they won’t have sex until their twentieth date. Meanwhile, Paula is impressed by Andy's salesmanship and promotes him to floor manager.
As Andy draws closer to his twentieth date with Trish, his friends begin to deal with the consequences of their lifestyles. David, still spiraling in his obsession with Amy, has become disillusioned with sex and has taken a vow of celibacy, prompting Cal to lure him out by hiring an attractive young woman named Bernadette (Marika Dominczyk) to work in the stockroom. After overreacting during an argument with an obnoxious customer (Kevin Hart), Jay reveals that his girlfriend Jill broke up with him after learning he has been cheating on her. Andy comforts Jay, who says that sex can ruin a relationship. However, Jill later decides to take Jay back after learning she is pregnant. Andy and Trish’s relationship grows, and Trish suggests that Andy sell his collectible action figures in order to raise enough money to open his own store. When they finally reach the twentieth date, Andy is still reluctant and resists Trish, upsetting her. An argument ensues, in which Andy accuses Trish of pushing him into changing his life against his will, and Andy leaves for the nightclub where Jay is celebrating his girlfriend’s pregnancy. He quickly gets drunk, and after running into Beth, leaves for her apartment with her. Meanwhile, David finally relinquishes his celibacy and hooks up with Bernadette, and Trish’s daughter Marla convinces her to go and make up with Andy.
By this time Andy has sobered up and, after witnessing Beth's methods of foreplay, he starts to have second thoughts. As Andy is leaving her bathroom, he finds his friends waiting outside, having followed to warn him about Beth and encourage him to go back to Trish. They leave together, and Andy returns to his apartment, where he finds Trish waiting for him. He attempts to apologize, but Trish, having found myriad suspicious belongings in his apartment, now thinks that Andy may be some sort of sexual deviant. Andy tries to convince her otherwise and declares his love for her, but she leaves in alarm and disgust. Andy chases after her on his bike but eventually runs headlong into the side of a truck. Trish rushes to his side in concern, and he finally confesses to her that he is a virgin. She is surprised to learn that this is the reason behind his strange behavior, as she does not consider it to be important, and they kiss. Later, Andy and Trish are married in a lavish ceremony with everyone in attendance, with a sidelong mention of Andy's action figures having sold for approximately half a million dollars. Afterwards, they consummate their marriage. The film ends with an over-the-top musical scene in which the cast of the film sing and dance to "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In".
The 40-Year-Old Virgin was met with strongly positive reviews, with 85% of 160 critics giving it a "fresh" review on Rotten Tomatoes.[4]
Ebert and Roeper gave the film a "two thumbs up" rating. Roger Ebert said, "I was surprised by how funny, how sweet, and how wise the movie really is" and "the more you think about it, the better The 40-Year-Old Virgin gets".[5] The pair gave minor criticisms, with Ebert describing "the way she (Catherine Keener as 'Trish') empathizes with Andy" as "almost too sweet to be funny" and Richard Roeper saying that the film was too long, and at times extremely frustrating.[5] Roeper later chose the film as the tenth best of 2005.[6] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the movie an A-, saying that Carell "plays him [Andy] in the funniest and most surprising way possible: as a credible human being." Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called the film a "charmingly bent comedy", noting that Carell conveys a "sheer likability" and a "range as an actor" that was "crucial to making this film work as well as it does."[7]
The film was criticized by Harry Forbes of Catholic News Service for promoting "the false premise that there's something intrinsically wrong with an unmarried man being sexually inexperienced",[8] and by conservative columnist Cal Thomas for not being a "tribute to self-control or purity".[9]
In December 2005, the film was chosen by the American Film Institute as one of the ten best movies of the year, the only comedy film to be so recognized (though the comedy-drama The Squid and the Whale was also chosen).
The film was also ranked No. 30 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies.
The film was a summer hit, and opened at No. 1 at the box office, grossing $21,422,815[10] on its opening weekend, and stayed at No. 1 the following weekend. The film grossed a total of $109,449,237 on the domestic market, and $67,929,408 overseas, for a total of $177,378,645. The film was 25th in global gross, and 19th in the United States that year.
On home video the film was released with an additional 17 minutes under the banner "unrated". This longer cut was met with mixed reviews.[11]
The American Humane Association withheld its "no animals were harmed..." disclaimer due to the accidental deaths of several tropical fish used in the film.[12]
The production used over a million feet of film, a milestone reached on the last day of filming and recognized with free champagne by Technicolor.[13] Using the conversion of 90 feet of film per minute, this means that the shooting ratio for the film is 96:1 for the theatrical (84:1 for the unrated version).