Review: This is 40 ★★

This is 40 is the latest film from Judd Apatow’s comedy conveyor belt and, in fact, a spin off of his previous film Knocked Up. We have come to recognise Apatow’s work from the spine of a cast consistent throughout every one of his films and the frequently crass (although often hilarious) jokes. However, and unfortunately, This is 40 simply does not reach the benchmark set by his classics like 40 Year Old Virgin and Superbad.

The simple premise is that this family is a slightly dysfunctional one, where the parents are approaching 40 and the kids have grown up since we last saw them in Knocked Up presenting us with the moody, pubescent Sadie and the hyperactive Charlotte. Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann (Apatow’s wife off camera) play two exasperated parents who are not coping well with the onrushing categorisation of being middle-aged, least of all with the money problems that are leaving them staring down the barrel of having to sell their house.

Apatow clearly intended this film to be a funny and insightful film about the pressures of becoming middle-aged. I have three quarrels with this film, having sat through its 133 minutes. Firstly, their attempt to portray the truths of financial trouble and mid-life crises is wayward; this is a very ‘Hollywood’ portrayal of being middle-aged. Rudd and Mann are both on extreme fitness regimes in the film and do not look like they are anywhere near 40 (even though they are both 43 and 40 respectively) leaving this illusion of ‘getting old’ in the film’s wake.

Secondly, it feels like a lot of the jokes are geared at parents and if they aren’t geared at the adult viewer, then they’re overly crude to compensate. There are some individual jokes that had me laughing but for an Apatow production this is disappointingly not very funny. It’s only saving grace in the comedic department is Chris O’Dowd, who seems to have landed himself in Apatow’s good books, and was by far and away the funniest character in this film. Jason Segal, on the other hand, was really very poor (which is a shame because he is one of my favourites in Apatow’s contact book). Don’t get me wrong, Rudd and Mann are also great but their lines were just not funny enough for a comedy film.

Finally, this film was far too long. The joke circling in the reviews is that “This is 40 minutes too long” and I would have to agree. By the end, I was sat stony-faced waiting for the end.

This film tried to be too many things: a comedy and an insightful, satirical jab at the pressures of being middle-aged. In the end, sadly, it fell short of both.