Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell, The Office<\/i>, Bruce Almighty<\/i>) works in the back room of an electronics store. He lives quietly at home, alone, collecting collectibles, playing video games, watching Survivor<\/i> with his neighbors, and riding his bike to work.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n <\/font><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span>One day the guys at the store invite him to a poker game. When the talk and bragging turns to chicks and babes, Andy tries to keep up but cannot because he has no experience. He\u2019s a virgin. So four of the guys decide to help him get laid. Meanwhile, the woman who runs a shop across the street, Trish (Catherine Keener), meets Andy in the\u00a0store and gives him her phone number.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n <\/font><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span>Rather than funny, The 40 Year Old Virgin<\/i> is extremely skummy because of the language. I thought My Cousin Vinny<\/i> (a film I like a lot) held the Olympic record for the f word, but this is it and worse. The thing is, the guys, Andy \u201cfriends\u201d, are externalizing their own insecurity and angst about women and sexuality via language. They have no imagination, act like idiots, and are immature. These guys, David (Paul Rudd), Ray (Romany Malco) and Cal (Seth Rogen) think they are mature because they have had so much sex, and by the end they realize they don\u2019t have anything. (Which is a good thing to realize\u2026)<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n <\/font><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span>I didn\u2019t think the film was funny except for when they waxed Andy\u2019s chest. It doesn\u2019t really teach kids (who are seeing this<\/span> even if you think they aren\u2019t; at the very least they are talking about it) to wait until marriage (which Andy and <\/span>Trish do) but to respect people who do want to wait to have sex after marriage \u2013 a choice among choices. In effect, the film is nihilism (that underpins so much of modern American morality) parading as comedy. However, if you can get beyond the foulness, the film does show the downside of not waiting and what it does to relationships. So maybe it has one redeeming quality.<\/span><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n <\/font><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span>I was disappointed that the filmmakers chose to make the film culturally diverse\u00a0by using Indian actors\u00a0(Shelly Malil; Gerry Bednob) in the cast and then portray them as low as everyone else.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n <\/font><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span>You can bet kids are seeing The 40 Year Old Virgin <\/strong><\/em>despite the R-rating. Smart parents will find a way to talk about the film in sublte ways because the film\u2019s presence is pervasive. Some issues: the benefits of waiting to have sex\u00a0until after\u00a0marriage and explain the beauty of chastity \u2013 and\u00a0why chastity is the physically and spiritually healthy choice. (Do your kids even know what the word \u201cchastity\u201d means?\u00a0I have discovered when talking with teens that many have never even heard of the word.) Use the film as an opportunity to talk about this important subject. The DVD will be out in about twelve weeks, so yes, they will see it at their friend\u2019s house. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n <\/font><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n I thought the scene at the birth control clinic about other options for sexual pleasure\u00a0instead of\u00a0intercourse was poorly done, even though this is where Andy finally admits to Trish\u2019s 16 year old daughter \u2013 and the group \u2013 that he\u2019s a virgin. (He has his own immaturity issues.) But of course, if the characters are smoking pot and drinking to fill their spare time, what more would you expect? <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The\u00a0characters talk dirty because they can, not because they have <\/span>brains. Although Andy is endearing and sweet, it\u2019s not<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell, The Office, Bruce Almighty) works in the back room of an electronics store. He lives quietly at home, alone, collecting collectibles, playing video games, watching Survivor with his neighbors, and riding his bike to work. \u00a0 One day the guys at the store invite him to a poker game. When the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
enough to save this picture with its lazy and unimaginative writing. The premise is all about guys \u2013 and doesn\u2019t seem to respect women. Men who don\u2019t respect women don\u2019t respect themselves, either \u2013 and we see this in the film. All of the women have too many hormones, just like the guys. And Trish shows she can get really hysterical \u2013 that lovely old Freudian cliche\u2019.<\/span><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n