Bottom Line: Laugh out loud funny. The same crude yet sweet sensibility found in “40 year old virgin.” Recommended.
BUT.. the recommendation does come with reservations. [spoiler warning for the remainder of the review]. The portrayal of male/female relations, and of women and men in general, is just grim. In the world of this movie, men are incapable of evolving beyond a sex and drug obsessed adolescent mentality, and women are demanding, humorless shrews, whose duty it is to rip men away from their carefree boyhood and trap them in the stifling sameness of family life. The “sweet” sensibility I mentioned earlier is applied only to the men, who at least come off as funny and fairly loveable. The women aren’t so lucky. The lead is at least likeable for a while, until the pregnancy starts to kick in and it becomes clear that the responsibilities of family life are going to turn her into a harpy just like her sister. The sister is unbearable, and is part of the “counterpoint” marriage that the lead characters watch with apprehension as they wonder if this will be their fate. The sister and her husband got married under similar circumstances as the lead characters (accidental pregnancy), and are doing their best to make it work for the kids, but the movie makes it clear that for the most part every day is sheer hell for them.
The one sympathetic moment for the women comes when they try to have a girls’ night out on the town, and find they can’t even get admitted to a bar because they are too old and too pregnant respectively. No wonder women are forced to entrap men, when their market value is so quickly lost!
Now, I know movies are under no obligation to portray women or anyone else in a positive light. And I do know women who are just as unpleasant as the ones in this movie, and that the “shrew” stereotype is a common one. It’s just that although I laughed a TON at this movie, I left feeling sort of weird, wondering what I had just laughed at. Interestingly, the one thing that bothered me about “40 Year Old Virgin” (made by the same director/writer) was a similar issue. In order to finally lose his virginity, the lead character had to not only find a woman to sleep with, but he had to abandon his boyish loves, in this case an impressive collection of action figures and other toys. I thought for sure that he was going to find someone who loved him AND his toys, but no. He had to “grow up.” This was a very minor point in the movie, but it’s interesting that this idea is carried forward more forcefully into the director’s next film. Kinda makes me wonder where this guy is coming from.
So, um, bottom line, like I said, funny as hell. Just don't think too much about it.
