The Forty Year Old Virgin

By Simon Woodhouse

Sometimes I'm not sure whether there are more stereotypes in action films or comedies. I think the stereotype plague is so rampant in both of these genres; because neither wants to waste time creating complicated characters. Action films require instant action, and comedies need immediate laughs. Stereotype characters offer the audience personality types they can recognize immediately, and film makers don't seem to care whether these sorts of people actually exist or not. I tend to think not, and that the whole stereotype thing is created by Hollywood for the sole purpose of providing lazy film makers with cardboard cut out characters.

The Forty Year Old Virgin tries to deliver one such stereotype. Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell), as the movie's title suggests, is a forty year old virgin. He lives alone, collects action figures (which he never takes out of their boxes), plays video games, dresses very conservatively and rides a bicycle to work. At work, he's employed in the billing department of an electronics store. A thoroughly nice, likable guy, Andy should fit the stereotypical image of what a forty year old virgin is, but somehow he doesn't. He looks the part, and all the trappings are there, but the image doesn't match the personality. His elongated virginal status is explained in a series of flashbacks. Each shows a disastrous sexual encounter where he came oh-so-close to doing the deed, but never actually made it. He them goes on to explain how he gave up trying, and now at forty years old, doesn't think he'll ever get there.

Why doesn't Andy come across as a convincing forty year old virgin? The answer's simple - he's too self-confident. He's half stereotype, and half something else, which makes for a very confusing character.

Anyway, when his 'buddies' at the store find out he's a virgin, they decide to try and do something about it. This leads to a series of set pieces, none of which are very convincing. I know this is a comedy, so it doesn't have to be convincing, but some scenes are played straight, as if the movie has something relevant to say, whilst others are just out there in la-la land. The down to earth side of the film involves Andy's attempts to woo Trish (Catherine Keener), a woman he meets in the store one day. The more outlandish scenes involve a speed-dating encounter from hell, and a drunken mismatch with a woman he meets at a nightclub. Though these scenes are funny, they're also a bit predictable. And in both of them Andy gets himself into a position (no pun intended), where he could lose his virginal status if he really wanted to. He's a forty year old virgin, but he's not really bothered about it, which kind of makes a mockery of the films basic premise.

The movie changes pace about two thirds of the way through, and becomes more about Andy's attempts to form a relationship with Trish. The virgin side of things is played down a bit here, and the film becomes a Hugh Grant style romantic comedy - yuk! Implausible things happen that seem very out of character. Andy takes Trish's teenage daughter to a class about birth control, when only a few scenes earlier the girl appeared to hate him. Trish has another daughter, who is mentioned so much it seems likely she'll appear at some point, but she never does.

The thing I found most difficult to understand is why Andy is a forty year old virgin. He doesn't seem to have a problem talking to women, and they seem to like him as well. He's not unattractive, and only has slight nerdy tendencies, none of which are apparent on the surface. Perhaps I was looking too deeply into what is, after all, a light-hearted comedy. But if the basic premise doesn't work, everything else falls down.

Of the supporting cast, most of which are Andy's pals at the store, David (Paul Rudd) is the best. In fact, Rudd's performance is far more watch-able than Carell's, and for me he saved the film. The other character who made me laugh was Paula (Jane Lynch), Andy's boss at the store. She had the whole scary, sexually rampant, older-woman-on-the-prowl vibe down to a tee. Had both of these two been given more screen time, the movie would have been a lot funnier. That's not to say it wasn't amusing, but from what I'd heard I was expecting something that would make me laugh out loud, which it did, but only once. Had it been more over the top, more ridiculous (in the vein of Anchorman, a film featuring a lot of the same cast), then the outlandish scenes would have seemed more at home. As it is, Virgin is a mish-mash of styles, none of which really work when squashed together in one film.