Knocked Up
While he’s made me laugh like a monkey and care about the characters he’s making me laugh at/with (something the Farrelly Brothers have never really made me do, at least not on this level), let’s hold off calling Judd Apatow the new king of comedy. True, his two films as writer-director- “Knocked Up” and “The 40 Year-Old Virgin” (for my money, the funniest film in at least 10 years)- are magical combinations of performance, story, and comedy, but while his writing is sharp and sincere, his directions still lacks the grace of the greats (Chaplin, Keaton, Wilder, Edwards) as a storyteller. Bear in mind, this is coming from someone who- of the five people in my group who watched the film recently- probably responded the strongest to the film. Not from personal experience, of course, but just from a general enjoyment of the story and how it’s handled.
Ben and Alison’s lives are on different paths. Alison (Katherine Heigl) is working behind-the-scenes at E!, while Ben (Seth Rogan) is barely working, spending most of his days messing around with his friends, smoking weed, and building a website that catalogs nudity in films by actress, and pointing out exactly where in the movie the nudity takes place (yes, it’s acknowledged such a site- Mr. Skin- already exists). But Alison impresses at work, and is given a promotion to on-camera work, giving her and sister Debbie (Apatow’s wife Leslie Mann, matching her comic gold in “Virgin” here beat for beat) reason to celebrate. At the club, Alison meets Ben- just out for a night with the boys- and the two hook up after several drinks. But a misunderstanding leads to unprotected sex and an unexpected revelation eight weeks later- Alison is expecting. She chooses to keep it, and Ben- despite a frequent lack of money- wants to help out, and these two polar opposites get to know each other.
What makes Apatow’s films as writer-director work is not so much a bending of conventions- both “Virgin” and “Knocked Up” follow through to crowd-pleasing conclusions- but a genuine interest in subject matter and character. Call it “The Simpsons” theory of comedy, where not all of the beats in the story may work, but you’ll get an even-handed and honest treatments of the subject matter, regardless how crazy things get along the way. In a way, both of Apatow’s films also bring memories of Kevin Smith’s films, in particular the “Clerks” films and especially “Chasing Amy,” in the way they wear their romantic’s hearts on their sleeves even when the raunch flies.
“Amy” is the best example, and seems to be the model for Apatow’s films, “Knocked Up” in particular. Both are about man-children whose lives of goofing off with their equally-immature pals are thrown out of whack by the prospect of- yikes- mature relationships. But unlike “Amy’s” Holden, who- after throwing himself head-first into prospect of loving lesbian girlfriend Alyssa- is thrown aback by a frank and sexually-experimental past that he can’t come to terms with, Ben thinks he can just become the right guy for Alison and their child without really changing himself first. Both eventually realize, with time, that they need to change their thinking. For both, things work out for the best for both parties, even if they don’t work out the way they expected them to. That level of honest emotional depth amist deviously depraved humor is what continues to make “Chasing Amy” a modern standard-bearer for the genre, and what elevates Apatow’s films above the other modern comedies more concerned with gags that test our gag reflexes.
Don’t get me wrong, Apatow and his cast are capable of catching laughs from mid-air and making them stick. He’s got a keen eye for talent that is able to integrate itself with his usual cast of mad ad-libbers (Rogan, Mann, and Paul Rudd, among others) and not seem out of place (remember how relaxed Oscar-nominated “serious actress” Catherine Keener seemed to be in “Virgin” surrounded by comic firecrackers?), and the results had me rolling in the aisles. Ben’s ruminations on the Jewish ass-kicking in “Munich” rival Rogan and Jane Lynch’s deleted musings on the notion of watching “Ghandi” high from “Virgin” in low-brow comic gold. The scene with Rogan and “Groundhog Day” director Harold Ramis as Ben’s father is as irreverent in its’ wit (when Ramis says Ben’s the best thing that ever happened to him, Ben can’t help but reply, “Well, now I just feel sorry for you.”) as it is sweet in its’ bonding (Ramis’ father may be divorced, but he has some good advice for Ben). The scene where Ben and a many months along Alison try to have sex without thinking about what it means for the baby is one of the classic comedic sex scenes in film. And the scene where Debbie and a very-pregnant Alison try to get by the bouncer outside of the club from earlier is as painfully observational about current ideas about what people consider attractive as it is viciously hilarious in the way it attacks such notions. These guys know how to get a laugh or two from an audience, even if sometimes they don’t really know when to quit (the film’s two hour-plus running time is its’ only real detriment; some trimming around the edges of some scenes would’ve increased both its’ storytelling prowess and comic possibilities).
Funny is good for a comedy, but it means nothing if you don’t have a story behind it, and thankfully, “Knocked Up” has a damn decent one, fueled by two star-making performances, and supported by memorable side characters. Heigl’s already a star in her own right on the boob tube, first on the cult fave “Roswell,” now on “Gray’s Anatomy.” “Knocked Up” shows her range, as she can spar comically with the best of this cast while also make you feel for Alison’s predicament, from her unease about telling her bosses at E! to the unencouraging advice she receives from her mother and Debbie to the palpable awkwardness of this smart, sexy working woman’s attempts to relate to Ben’s stoner slacker. When her job at the hospital on “Anatomy” ends, she’s got the chops to be a leading lady on TV or in film. I wouldn’t necessarily say the same for Rogan, but for someone who seems more accustomed to supporting roles, he’s no slouch as a star. He fits perfectly into the role of a guy who’s one-track mind jumps the rails and rises to the occasion when life pushes and maturity shoves him into a new stage of his life. In a matter of matching the right actor with the right material, Apatow gets it, and Rogan doesn’t disappoint.
As a parallel to Ben and Alison’s story, Apatow offers us a glimpse at how Debbie and her husband Pete’s marriage has hit a rough patch. Neither understand the other- Debbie thinks Pete’s cheating, while Pete can’t figure why she wants to spend time with him. Neither get it- in a way, they’re more dysfunctional than Ben and Alison. In a way, though, Apatow doesn’t really get it, either. Make no mistake, Mann and the ever-hilarious Paul Rudd (as Pete) play the insecurities and comic notes of this relationship with honest wit and disillusionment. But the whole thing with their marriage on the rocks feels forced into the story as an excuse to have the men and women become more than just ribbing buddies (Pete and Ben’s fancy dinner exchange about “Back to the Future” is on par with Rogan and Rudd’s “know how I know you’re gay” back-and-forth in “Virgin”). I wouldn’t have gone as far with it as Apatow does- you don’t need to; there’s enough tension in whether Ben and Alison will work that you don’t need to be wondering the same about Debbie and Pete, though their friction is palpable and comes from a real place. And that’s ultimately why Judd Apatow is one of the best funnymen in the business- as crazy as the jokes get, as unfocused as his storytelling can get, his heart is always in the right place, while most of his contemporaries are looking to just ride the comic waves all the way to the bank. I mentioned earlier that he wasn’t quite up with the masters of comedy past (Chaplin, Keaton, Wilder, Edwards) just yet; ultimately, though, he’s not far off.
