Film: This Is 40

Director: Judd Apatow
Genre: Comedy
Source: USA (2012)
Rating: R
Location/Format: Glynn Place Stadium Theater
Grade: C+ (with the acknowledgment that I might have enjoyed it more if I had been in a better mood)

There are a few things I can typically count on in a Judd Apatow movie: it will make me laugh a lot, it will be too long, it will at times be profoundly dirty in a really good-natured way, and it will make me uncomfortable. This Is 40 hit on all those points for me, but somehow I can't say I loved it. I don't know, maybe it hit a little too close to home at times (I've had a few fights with my wife that are just as petty and small and hurtful as some of the fights in this movie), or maybe it was the fact that I never quite liked the two main characters much--which of course seems ironic given my previous statement--but I found myself not really sure how much I really cared about their problems. The problem with making characters true-to-life in all the ways that we can be little and cold to the people we care about most is that then you have a movie filled with people being little and cold. Debbie (Leslie Mann) and Pete (Paul Rudd) are extremely likable at times, but they're also extremely selfish at times, and the movie doesn't ever really allow them to grow out of that, even with the  fairly predictable resolution. I know, I know, that's us, that's life. We're great to our spouses and our children, and then we're complete A-holes to them, often just moments apart, but the lack of real growth still disheartens, mostly because the film seems to think they've grown. But they haven't. They are self-serving--lying to another child's parents and to the school principal (in what is admittedly a hilarious scene, thanks to Melissa McCarthy) to avoid getting in trouble--not facing their financial problems, blaming pretty much everyone else for their troubles, and then assuming that just saying "Sorry" fixes everything. It doesn't.

Maybe I am asking too much, and it makes it sound like I didn't enjoy the movie. I might be, and I did. But I just feel like it squandered some opportunities to say something more about life and adulthood and what it means to be in a relationship. I think Apatow thinks he's got more to say than he actually does.

Still, Paul Rudd. Is there anyone more likable? I mean, the fact that he grew up in Kansas and attended my favorite school helps, but still. That guy just makes me laugh.

Alternate Film Title: "Rich White People Problems"