The 40-Year-Old Virgin
What separates Virgin, which just may have saved the R-rated comedy, from the pack is the fact that behind every cheap joke in the film, there’s as much heart as there is smut.
By Ryan Devlin
 (Universal, $29.98)
Movie: 3 1/2 stars Disc: 3 1/2 stars
THE MOVIE: It's still too early to tell whether the era of stripping screwball comedies of their wit and pointed raunch in order to achieve the more marketable PG-13 rating is indeed over, but along with Wedding Crashers, The 40-Year-Old Virgin just may have saved the R-rated comedy from extinction. What separates Virgin from the pack, putting it more on a par with films like Caddyshack and Animal House than, say, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, is the fact that behind every cheap joke in the film, there's as much heart as there is smut. As the good-natured and sexually stunted peon Andy Stitzer, Steve Carell carries the film with his ability to let Andy's squeamishness and sincerity counterbalance the lewdness of his overgrown frat-boy coworkers, who in an effort to indoctrinate him into the world of the immature and libidinous, set him awash in a sea of sleaze. And Andy's relationship with Trish (Catherine Keener), a single mother and grandmother who is repenting for having jumped too early into her sexuality, is both touching and hilarious.
THE DISC: The extras are plentiful, with extensions of some of the film's funnier scenes, like the "Date-A-Palooza," and a behind-the-scenes documentary of the body waxing scene; these would be worth the purchase on their own.
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Movie Review of The 40-Year-Old Virgin
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