Twenty-One Years On, The 40 Year-Old Virgin Still Gets Its Jokes Right Where It Counts

Steve Carell plays Andy, a man who has never had sex. That premise is simple. The execution is less simple, and less subtle, than the idea deserves. “The 40 Year-Old Virgin” wants to be a comedy about shame, loneliness, and the absurdity of adulthood. It spends too much of its runtime being gross instead.

Carell plays Andy as a kind, gentle man who has spent his life focused on work and video games. He lives alone, he has no girlfriend, and he is completely unaware that his coworkers have been betting on exactly when he will lose his virginity. The setup is sharp. The payoff is not.

Trailer, via Universal Pictures.

Andy’s Home

Andy’s apartment is the film’s best setting. It is small, neat, and filled with action figures and comic books. His mother still calls him to check on him. His boss, David, watches him closely. The contrast between Andy’s quiet world and the cruel office politics around him gives the movie some real tension early on.

That tension fades fast once the plot shifts to Andy meeting Trish, played by Catherine Keener, a woman who runs a local adult store. Their romance is meant to be sweet. It mostly just feels like a way to get Carell naked on screen.

The Gross Scenes

“The 40 Year-Old Virgin” is built on spectacle. There are scenes of Andy buying sex toys, of him trying to masturbate, of him getting caught by his coworkers. These scenes are not funny. They are loud, crude, and mean. The film treats Andy’s virginity as a joke, not a character trait. This is a problem, because Andy’s virginity is the whole point of the story.

Carell does his best. He sells the confusion, the embarrassment, the genuine hope. But the script keeps pushing him toward jokes about his body that feel mean, not funny. The film is at its weakest when it stops caring about Andy as a person and starts caring about the shock value.

The Cast Around Andy

The supporting cast is strong, but they are often used poorly. Trish, played by Keener, is meant to be a warm counterpoint to Andy’s awkwardness. Instead she becomes a prop for his journey. David, played by Seth Rogen, is Andy’s boss. His scenes are the worst in the film, full of jokes about Andy’s failure that cross the line from cruel to offensive.

Rogen’s performance is energetic, but energy is not enough when the material is bad. The film’s treatment of women is also troubling. Trish is reduced to a prize in a bet, and the other female characters exist mainly to be judged by the men around them.

What Works

There are moments where “The 40 Year-Old Virgin” finds its footing. The scene where Andy tries to explain his past to Trish is genuinely touching. Carell’s face, wide-eyed and earnest, carries more weight than any of the film’s gross-out gags. The film’s final stretch, where Andy finally loses his virginity, is rushed and underwritten, but it ends on a note of modest triumph rather than triumphantly vulgar.

That balance is rare in a comedy this loud.

The Numbers

• Director: Judd Apatow
• Lead actor: Steve Carell
• Supporting actress: Catherine Keener
• Supporting actor: Seth Rogen
• Running time: 95 minutes

Ranking the Elements

1. Andy’s home and his daily routine — the best parts of the film
2. The gross-out sequences — the weakest parts of the film
3. Trish’s character arc — thin, underdeveloped
4. David’s bullying — the most offensive material
5. The ending — rushed, but somewhat earned

Final Word

“The 40 Year-Old Virgin” has a good idea and a talented lead. It does not have a script worthy of either. The film is a mess of wasted potential. It is gross, mean, and occasionally moving. It is not a great movie. It is not even a good one.

It is a film that wanted to say something about shame and loneliness and settled for jokes about a man’s body. That is a disappointment, and it is a shame. Carell deserved better. So did we.

2005 films · comedy review · gross-out comedy · Judd Apatow · Steve Carell