I guess I'm a Judd Apatow fan. I liked Freaks and Geeks. I didn't think I'd like 40 Year Old Virgin as much as I did. Superbad, by extension, is actually a hell of a lot of fun for his input. Knocked Up's also alright. But I didn't think This is 40 would be any good at all. When you see a running time of 2 hours and 15 mins as you're booting it up on Netflix, you'd be put off if you didn't know Apatow does incredibly long comedies. He's been accused of having a problem with editing, and yes, a lot of scenes in This is 40 seem like skits to fill in time. But he's one of the few directors bothering to portray some semblance of reality, so you get vignettes of real life situations threaded together into a fairly basic story with a lot of heart.
This is 40 meanders more than Knocked Up, but you could see there was something of a film between Rudd and Mann's characters that was worth exploring more. And returning to them when they're turning 40 (Lesley Mann's character in denial and claiming she's 38 - I have words on this I'll get to) and their daughters (Apatow's real life daughters, who seem to have adopted their dad's quippy sense of humour) could've failed miserably. But the problem is, the situation they're in doesn't always seem to make total sense at first glance.
I haven't been paying 100% attention to movies lately, it's background noise, but some aspects of this bothered me. Would you really have a father so irresponsible he's taking money from Pete (Rudd) without Debbie (Mann) being unaware of just how much has gone missing and how in the hole they are from Pete's bad business decisions as the head of his own record label? There's the extension from Knocked Up of Debbie's hang ups over her aging, we get to see her going through a myriad of health checks, including a mammogram, just to illustrate the fears of the target audience on turning 40. Pete accepts his actual age but not a full sense of adulthood and responsibility. He has to be the sensible one though when Debbie's spending money on useless eastern medicine. They argue like a cliched couple, try to revive their relationship with a dirty weekend away complete with edibles, which is a fun montage, and they hide shit and their feelings until they escalate. Neither of them deal with other parents or children effectively, though Melissa McCarthy's portrayal of the bitchy mother who'll happily lie about the location of her own fucking nipples made me want to slap her. She's not that funny, people. Debbie and Pete are comically children trying to be adults with children and responsibilities. They just about have the right chemistry for a couple with serious ambivalence as to whether or not to stay married, that's perhaps the most genuine part of this film.
I can't relate to any of this because I'm an asshole who has no issue with turning 40. I've completed personal goals and self-actualised and it's not been a simple process, but I'm fine where I am and fine with my age. I don't look my age admittedly, but I still don't really see why turning 40 is a nightmare except because movies and TV and society tell us that it's supposed to be a nightmare. You're not allowed to kid yourself at this point. You've got to get your shit together or you're screwed. Some people should get their shit together by 30, not 40. Those ten years seem to give you leeway for postponing maturity and responsibility. By 40, it's too late. You're a loser if you've not pulled it together by then. And I don't believe this. I've met too many people in their 40s, 50s and 60s who do and say the stupidest, most immature crap and completely mean it, and feel justified in their actions. Age is a number. That's all I can say of this.
I did enjoy this movie much more than I expected. Megan Fox as Desi isn't so terrible. She plays off Mann's sad desire to retain her youth and be endearing and attractive to men while trying to ascertain if Desi is stealing, and for some stupid excuse we have to suffer through Jodie (Charlyne Yi) because she was kinda funny in Knocked Up, but she's still a stoner who seems to have the cognisance to falsely accuse Desi and then show no genuine remorse for being the actual thief. I was fine with her until that reveal, (the line "Everything that comes out of her mouth is lies. Everything that goes into her mouth is dicks." slayed me) then she made it awkward with her mugging, stoner crap. I get this is played for comedy but then you see how Debbie's an idiot for hiring a stoner (who's also babysitting the kids). Neither of these adults make genuine adult decisions. For comedy. And adding Pete's dad's irresponsibility of fathering triplets late in life, with Debbie's dad's absence, you have the reasons for the dumb decisions Pete and Debbie both make. And it works within the context of the film, but not real life. And that's fine, but it's actually harder to suspend disbelief with this than it is with Knocked Up.
These aren't really reviews, I know. I'm kind of just fleshing out my thoughts in the vein of people I've been watching lately, and I was surprised with This is 40 as the trailers didn't sell this to me at all. You end up liking Debbie despite her being thoroughly and purposefully unlikable, but because of this through two thirds of the film, I am SO on Pete's side and I rarely have time for Debbie's self-denial and self-pity. Maybe when my tits are sagging and I start to wither, I'll be eating my own words. But I haven't botched my body with a baby either.
Pete and Debbie do seem to embrace the inevitable in the final scenes, and the meandering closes on them reaching an understanding. Which I know happens in real relationships, I can attest to it taking more than ten years to actually get to that place if you're willing to keep going and not give up, and wanting to give up makes sense too. So this movie makes sense in its own Apatow kind of way.
3/5
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