The 40 Year Old Virgin

Comedy

Steve Carell	Andy Stitzer
Catherine Keener	Trish
Paul Rudd	David
Romany Malco	Jay
Seth Rogen	Cal
Elizabeth Banks	Beth
Leslie Mann	Nicky
Jane Lynch	Paula
Gerry Bednob	Mooj
Shelley Malil	Haziz

Director	Judd Apatow
Producer	Judd Apatow; Shauna Robertson
Writer	Judd Apatow; Steve Carell
Cinematography	Jack N. Green
Musician	Lyle Workman

Cult comic actor Steve Carell--long adored for his supporting work on The Daily Show and in movies like Bruce Almighty and Anchorman--leaps into leading man status with The 40 Year-Old Virgin. There's no point describing the plot; it's about how a 40 year-old virgin named Andy (Carell) finally finds true love and gets laid. Along the way, there are very funny scenes involving being coached by his friends, speed dating, being propositioned by his female manager, and getting his chest waxed. Carell finds both humor and humanity in Andy, and the supporting cast includes some standout comic work from Paul Rudd (Clueless, The Shape of Things) and Jane Lynch (Best in Show, A Mighty Wind), as well as an unusually straight performance from Catherine Keener (Lovely & Amazing, Being John Malkovich). And yet... something about the movie misses the mark. It skirts around the topic of male sexual anxiety, mining it for easy jokes, but never really digs into anything that would make the men in the audience actually squirm--and it's a lot less funny as a result. Nonetheless, there are many great bits, and Carell deserves the chance to shine. --Bret Fetzer