Review in a Hurry: The maker of The 40-Year-Old Virgin now takes on pregnancy—with giggles, tears, unabashed sentimentality and the delicious bawdiness that comes with an R rating.
The Bigger Picture: First came the virgin, then came the baby. Writer-director Judd Apatow is working his way up the timeline of our romantic lives and once again has given birth to a bighearted, funny-as-hell romantic comedy. When slacker dude Ben (Seth Rogen) and career woman Alison (Katherine Heigl) have a one-night stand, she gets pregnant. Both want to keep the baby, but they don't have a relationship in any sense of the word. Can they make it all the way to the delivery room as a united couple? Is it worth even trying?
And it wouldn't be so funny without all the glorious swearing. The F-word is used with giddy relish in just about every scene, yet the flick warms the heart far more than any straitlaced romance picture filled with coy, picture-perfect archetypes. It's Apatow's trademark mix of the profane and the sentimental that makes the characters seem like real people—people who fuss, fight, smoke a lot of weed, scream at their spouses and freak out in the gynecologist's office. That's what makes Knocked Up so great. Even if you haven't been in this exact situation, if you ever did, this Judd Apatow fella would totally know what it's like.
by Dezhda Mountz,
E!
