Judd Apatow is a champion of American family values. Maybe you wouldn’t pick the writer-director of The 40-Year-Old Virgin as the most likely candidate to bring traditional morality to movie-goers, since he’s obviously a big fan of vulgarity, nudity and well-timed fart jokes, but it’s clear from both Virgin and his new film, Knocked Up, that Apatow holds family in at least as high esteem as he does bong hits and bare breasts.
The wholesome values in Knocked Up are effectively intermixed with the movie’s real selling point, its outrageous humor, but it’s clear which side wins out. That makes the film either an act of subversive genius—getting stoners and slackers to appreciate the importance of parenthood—or a strangely conservative scolding in the guise of a dumb comedy. As tempting as it is to give Apatow credit for subversion, it might be safer to say that he’s really just telling his audience to grow up and accept some responsibility.
That’s exactly what happens to Ben Stone (Seth Rogen), a prototypical representative of the Apatow demographic (he has no job and no money, and sits around all day with his buddies smoking pot and dreaming up a website about celebrity nudity), when his one-night stand with driven E! news producer Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) results in an unplanned pregnancy. Although the film toys with Ben’s insecurities about unexpectedly becoming a parent, and his awkwardness at trying to create a real relationship with the polished and confident Alison, never at any point is there the question of whether it’s best for this 23-year-old doofus with a few hundred dollars to his name to become a father.
As the father of two himself, Apatow obviously has a positive view of parenthood, and plenty of amusing observations about the absurdities leading up to it. The humor in Knocked Up is neither as extreme nor as scathing as that in Virgin, but it’s never timid, and Apatow doesn’t hesitate to lay bare the fears and misgivings that come even with well-thought-out, planned pregnancies. But all of that is ultimately brushed aside when things get serious; nobody in this film ever truly shirks responsibility or does other than the right thing. When one of Ben’s buddies cautiously broaches the topic of abortion, he can’t even say the actual word, and even the other immature dudes give him the stink-eye.
The sociopolitical message is secondary to the comedy, of course, and in that sense Knocked Up succeeds, at least sporadically. It’s overlong at more than two hours, and takes a few too many detours, but it’s got a lot of really funny moments that take full advantage of the R rating. And as adept as Apatow is at portraying the vulgarity and intimacy of male bonding, he tackles female bonding pretty confidently here, too, managing to show women as often just as uncouth and insecure as men, but in their own unique ways.
The biggest problem with Knocked Up is not its questionable message so much as its star, who’s done great work in supporting roles in Apatow productions including Virgin and the TV shows Undeclared and Freaks and Geeks, but flounders a bit as a leading man. He doesn’t quite have the sensitivity to pull off Ben’s more serious moments, especially opposite strong work from Heigl. As a result, the emotional complexity that Apatow clearly has in mind comes off as sort of sarcastic and insincere when Rogen handles it, and the more touching moments come from Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd as Alison’s sister and brother-in-law, who are having insecurities of their own after two kids.
It’s that combination of the sincere and the sarcastic that Apatow does best, and his films are more honest and passionate than pretty much any other mainstream comedies. If he occasionally slips into sentimentality, or even preachiness, at least it’s out of a genuine feeling, not an effort to pander.
Knocked Up
***
Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann
Directed by Judd Apatow
Rated R
Opens Friday