The 40-Year-Old Virgin
The 40-Year-Old Virgin is a
comedy film starring
Steve Carell and directed by Judd Apatow. The film follows Carell, in the title role, in his efforts to have his first sexual relationship with a woman.
The movie was co-written by Carell and Apatow, though it featured a lot of improvised dialogue. It also stars
Catherine Keener and
Paul Rudd, and features Leslie Mann and
Nancy Walls in small roles.
The film received its general U.S. theatrical release on August 19, 2005 and released on
region 1 DVD on December 13, 2005.
Quotations
Dude, it's not big deal if you like to fuck guys. I'm cool, I got friends who fuck guys...in jail.
From now on, your dick is my dick. I'm getting you some pussy.
He's a really nice guy and all but I'm pretty sure that he is a serial murderer.
I hope you have a big trunk, 'cause I'm puttin' my bike in it.
I just want to get drunk, fucked up, and play some cards!
More Quotes >>
Encyclopedia
The 40-Year-Old Virgin is a
comedy film starring
Steve Carell and directed by Judd Apatow. The film follows Carell, in the title role, in his efforts to have his first sexual relationship with a woman.
The movie was co-written by Carell and Apatow, though it featured a lot of improvised dialogue. It also stars
Catherine Keener and
Paul Rudd, and features Leslie Mann and
Nancy Walls in small roles.
The film received its general U.S. theatrical release on August 19, 2005 and released on
region 1 DVD on December 13, 2005.
This film is number 30 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".
Plot summary
- Taglines: Better late than never. and The longer you wait, the harder it gets.
Andy Stitzer is a 40-year-old bachelor who works as an inventory clerk at an electronics store, and lives in an apartment featuring a video game chair and
a vast collection of
action figures, some decades old. During a poker game his three co-workers share stories about their sex life, and quickly figure out when its Andy's turn to share that Andy is a
virgin. They resolve to help their friend lose his virginity.
Andy attempts to follow his friend's advice in a series of situations that prove to be sometimes life-threatening , sometimes painful , and sometimes based on misunderstanding . But the comic mishaps seem to help pave the way to a real relationship with Trish Piedmont , a customer and owner of a "We Sell It on eBay" store across the street from Andy's store. While their relationship experiences some roadblocks that are due to his fear of physical intimacy and some problems between Trish and her teenage daughter, the two end up married and consummate their marriage on their wedding night, in a finale which transitions into an elaborate celebratory production of "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" that features Andy, Trish, Andy's friends, and almost everyone else from the film.
Reception
Critical reception
Ebert & Roeper gave the film two thumbs up, Ebert saying "I was surprised by how funny, how sweet, and how wise the movie really is" and "the more you think about it, the better
The 40-Year-Old Virgin gets.". The pair offered minor criticisms, with Ebert describing "the way she empathizes with [Andy]" as "almost too sweet to be funny" and Roeper thinking it was too long.
Manohla Dargis of
The New York Times is a newspaper [i] published in New York City [i] by Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. [i] ...
called the film a "charmingly bent comedy", noting that Carell conveys a "sheer likability" and a "range as an actor" that were "crucial to making this film work as well as it does."
Rotten Tomatoes declared it the "Best Reviewed Comedy of 2005", with 84% of 160 critics giving it a "fresh" review.
In December 2005, the film was chosen by the
American Film Institute as one of the
ten best movies of the year, the only comedy film to be so recognized .
Box office success
According to Box Office Mojo as of July 2006, the film opened at #1 at the
box office, and repeating a #1 box office the following weekend. It grossed about $109.4 million domestically in a 17-week release and about $67.8 million internationally, for a total of approximately $177 million worldwide. It was 25th in gross globally, and 19th in the U.S. that year.D release
An unrated version of the film was released on DVD. It features additional and extended scenes which add 17 minutes to the length of the film. Those scenes include:
- A heated argument between Jay and Mooj over a "poached" customer
- A poker scene with alternate dialogue
- A scene where Andy imagines sexually provocative photos on magazine covers at a newstand
- A flashback scene featuring a young Andy's struggle to remove a girl's bra
- A longer version of a scene at a bar where Andy picks up a drunk woman
- Andy fast-forwards through sex scenes featured in a pornographic film, then imagines its star talking to him, with clumsy sex talk in a voice that turns into his own
- Andy's boss Paula tells another of her employees that she would have sex with Andy "in a New York minute"
- Mooj complains to floor manager Andy about the shifts he's been assigned, then talks to Andy about the up-and-coming end to his series of 20 sex-free dates with Trish
- Andy and Beth have a "Who's on First?"-like exchange featuring the word "butt"
- An extended argument between Jay and the black customer at Smartech
Commentary track
The unrated version included a feature-length commentary track featuring Apatow, Carell, Rudd, and several other members of the cast. Atypically, the commentary was recorded before the film opened. The track is as explicit as the film's dialogue: at one point the commentary track producer sends in a note to Apatow asking for "less semen, more emotion" in their comments.
The commentary mentions the following:
- The film originated in a conversation between Apatow and Carell on the set of Anchorman. Apatow asked Carell if he had any ideas for a film of his own and Carell pitched a couple—the second pitch, which led to the film, came from an idea that dates back to Carell's Second City days.
- The studio was worried that Andy looked like Jeffrey Dahmer, a comment that led to multiple improvised references to Andy's similarity to a serial killer.
- Adam McKay is credited with the idea of having Andy's buddies talk while they broke fluorescent tubes.
- To be sure they got the coverage they needed of the body waxing scene, four cameras were used simultaneously.
- The production used over a million feet of film, a milestone reached on the last day of filming and recognized with free champagne by the company providing the film stock.
- According to Apatow the origin of "Boner Jams '03" came while Apatow was a writer on the 1994 film Heavyweights. Apatow stated while sitting around with the other actors after dinner actor David Bowe asked if they wanted to watch porn. Bowe played a compilation tape of porn which thus inspired Apatow to introduce it in the film.
The amount of improvised dialogue in the film was so significant that co-writer Apatow half-jokingly questioned the legitimacy of his writer's credit.
Deleted scenes
The following deleted scenes are included on the DVD:
- “Getting Ready” - Andy tries to get Cal’s approval over which shirt to wear; Jay and David exchange words.
- “Drunk Driving - Alternate Ending” - Instead of Andy ending the date after Nicky’s “accident”, Nicky has Andy take the fall for her. She also doesn’t barf in his face as in the final theatrical version, but on the car floor.
- “’The First Time’ Karaoke” - Andy sings a karaoke song when he celebrates with his SmartTech buddies.
- “Rooftop Confessions” - The gang talks about their misadventures of their first time doing it.
- “Kid Customers” - David tries unsuccessfully to sell the robot toy to customers.
- “Andy and Jazzmun” - an extended scene where Andy finds out Jazzmun is a transvestite prostitute.
Trivia
- The grammatically correct way to spell the title is with two hyphens, one after "40" and the other after "year." When the movie was originally released, posters and the official website excluded the hyphen after "40" . The error was eventually caught and changed.
- This is Steve Carell's first starring role in a feature film. His previous credits were as supporting characters in as a dimwitted weatherman, and Bruce Almighty as an arrogant rival to Jim Carrey.
- Steve Carell was filmed actually having his chest waxed. He is actually screaming those lines with no preparation . He was also presented with the option of trimming the hair before filming to lessen the pain, but declined in favour of authenticity. He further stated in an interview on Australia's Rove Live that the scene was unecessarily painful because the waxers forgot to oil his nipples.tional scenes had to be filmed for the trailer, since so many of the film's actual scenes contain strong language.
- In January 2006, both Carell and director/co-writer Judd Apatow were nominated by the Writer's Guild of America for Best Original Screenplay, alongside Good Night, and Good Luck is an Academy Award [i]-nominated 2005 film [i] ...
, The Squid and the Whale is a 2005 [i] comedy-drama [i] film [i] written and directed by ...
, Cinderella Man is a 2005 [i] American [i] Academy Award [i]-nominated drama film [i] ...
, and Crash. - This film was originally rated NC-17 but was changed back to R on an appeal.
- The film makes extensive use of Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. The electronics store, for example, is located on Ventura in Tarzana; the bike accident sequence was filmed on Ventura Place, just west of Laurel Canyon in Studio City; and Delmonico's Lobster House on Ventura in Encino was also used for one of Andy's dates.
- The Smart Tech store is a play on the retail stores Circuit City and Future Shop, utilizing the similarities in their uniforms, floor layout, and exteriors.
- The film makes two interesting video game references, the first featuring Andy playing Tony Hawk's Underground 2 is the sixth installment in Neversoft [i]'s Tony Hawk's Series [i] and ...
, despite the fact that the film was released months before the game was out. The second is with Andy's friends during the infamous improvised "you know how I know you're gay" riffs, when they are playing . However, they are using Nintendo 64 controllers, despite the game only being available on the PS2, GameCube & Xbox. The Console is actually an Xbox. - Besides Steve Carell, a few other stars from The Office is the name of two television comedy [i] shows created by Ricky Gervais [i] and Stephen Merchant [i]...
can be seen in this film. Mindy Kaling plays David's ex-girlfriend Amy and Jenna Fischer is seen as one of many girls in the first club scene. Also, Phyllis Smith played Andy's mother in a flashback scene that was ultimately cut from the film. Featured actors Nancy Walls and David Koechner have made frequent guest-appearances on the show. It should also be noted that one of the casting directors on this film also is casting director for The Office. - The film ends with the cast, for no apparent reason, breaking into a song from the musical Hair
...
which is reminiscent of a 1997 episode of The Simpsons is an Emmy [i] and Peabody [i]-winning American [i] animated [i] ...
where, at the end of the episode, the entire cast starts singing "Good Morning Starshine". In the DVD commentary for the episode, executive producer Al Jean good-naturedly noted this saying, "We did this before The 40 Year Old Virgin."
References
External links
