Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Tinsel

Home
Religious Music & Entertainment
Review: ‘This is 40’ and It’s Not Pretty

Review: ‘This is 40’ and It’s Not Pretty

Last updated on: December 21, 2012 at 12:29 pm by Rebecca Cusey

Review: ‘This is 40’ and It’s Not Pretty 2012-12-21T12:29:32-06:00 Rebecca Cusey

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Once again, the insightful Judd Apatow has put his finger on Generation X in his new movie This is 40. Sadly, the result is not encouraging.

A fitful and disjointed series of vignettes insightfully paints a picture of a lost, selfish, and sometimes horrible couple who don’t like who they are and can’t find a way to change.

In a sort of sequel to his brilliant hit Knocked Up, Apatow follows Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann) as they hit the big four-oh in a swirl of crisis and stress. Their two daughters Sadie and Charlotte hate each other. Debbie’s father (John Lithgow) remains completely absent. Pete’s father (Albert Brooks) sponges off them to support his identical triplets with his new wife. Work is no better. Someone is stealing in Debbie’s shop and Pete’s musician agency is about to go under. He doesn’t want to tell Debbie about their worsening financial crisis. (Debbie’s sister Allison, the subject of Knocked Up, is neither shown nor mentioned. It’s up to the audience to imagine what horrible death caused the family to be completely unable to even say her name.)

And that’s just the beginning. Things get steadily worse from there.

Pete and Debbie spend much of the movie in the cyclical bonding and driving each other apart that married couples know so well. One minute they’re having sex (as they are in the opening credits) and another they’re calling each other names that would make a sailor blush.

The movie, like the rest of Apatow’s work, is rated R and not for the faint of heart.

Here and there, we see moments of brilliance. A particular favorite is the scene in which the couple tenderly and lovingly discusses their fantasies of how they would kill each other. That feeling is so familiar to married couples (or is it just me?) that the scene is hilarious.

Much of the movie, however, feels like a series of disjointed skits. Subplots involving hot employee/escort Megan Fox and sundry other friends go nowhere, but in scandalous ways. Some of the plot points feel like the eleven year old child in Apatow muttering naughty words to himself just for the fun of it.

Worse, however, is the excellent character development in Debbie and Pete. By the end of the movie, we not only dislike them, but actually think they are horrible, horrible people. The particularly grueling sequence begins funny when Debbie metes out a scathing, obscenity-laden diatribe to a junior high boy who has offended her daughter on Facebook. When the mother (Melissa McCarthy) very justifiably confronts Pete, he rallies ranks and administers his own, even more obscene rant on her. In the ensuing visit to the principal, the two stand shoulder to shoulder, play innocent, and blatantly lie, painting the wronged mother and son as crazy trouble makers.

Ha ha. What cards. Isn’t it lovely how they have each other’s backs?

Except I was 100% on the other mother’s side. I really wanted to see Debbie and Pete get their comeuppance, but it never happens.

Instead, they reconfirm their commitment to each other with a sort of ode to family, who sticks with you even when you’re despicable. Family, it seems, especially spouses, are the only people with whom you can actually be one’s ugly self.

There’s beauty in that message. But not enough.

When Debbie and Pete have loyalty only to each other and, peripherally to their children and parents, the world is essentially hollow. They are the center of their own universes with no mission nor cause other than not to kill each other before they die a natural death. Their marriage offers nothing to the world, makes nothing better. Even raising healthy and good children is not much of a goal for them.

This distressing image may be true for Apatow, who identifies so much with the script he wrote that his wife and children take starring roles, and it may be true for a great number of his and my generation. That is the most distressing part of all because although Pete and Debbie stay together, the audience would like to see some hope or joy in that rather than a shrug and an empty acceptance of a dreary future.

Previous Post

December 20, 2012

Look Down, Look Down! An interview with Justice Fellowship's Pat Nolan on the Released Prisoners Walking in Jean Valjean's Footsteps

Next Post

January 4, 2013 Fifteen 2012 Movies I'd Still Recommend Five Years from Now

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Becky's Picks Children's Movies DVD releases Entertainment News Faith on Film Featured Hunger Games In Theaters Interviews Life, Etc. Mixed Nuts Movie Reviews Poliflix Scroogewatch slider Television Uncategorized

Select a Month December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 April 2011 March 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Be strong and work, for I am with you. My Spirit remains among you according to what covenant?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The new covenant The covenant made when Israel came out of Egypt The Mosaic covenant The Abrahamic Covenant