Review of Knocked Up (2007) by Joang. — 03 Jun 2007

It was really great, really, really funny, but not quite as special as 40YOV. For me, this very truthful movie was missing some very important truth at its core. We were given zero reason to believe or understand why Alison would love Ben and actually plan to begin a life with him.

(I would say "and visa versa," but Alison is so beautiful, smart, and successful that someone like Ben would simply be stunned that she had anything to do with him at all, and wouldn't care about whether they had anything in common.

) It's not that Ben isn't lovable, but the movie never shows you any way that their personalities actually fit together. This is a big difference from Virgin, where one of the beautiful things about the movie was how much sense the relationship made.

Moreover, even if Alison's personalty was more compatible with Ben's -- if, for example, we had learned that she had been a bit of a slacker herself before she went into TV and "grew up" -- in real life Alison would be much, much, MUCH more freaked out by Ben's lack of a job or any prospects at all.

This is another thing that Virgin did much better -- the Catherine Keener character talks to Steve Carrell bluntly about whether he wants to be a sales clerk all his life, and they come up with a plan that makes perfect sense for him.

I think they could have done a couple things to fix this problem in Knocked Up, with a few very tiny changes. For example, after the one-night stand, Alison could have seen Ben as a fun, guilty pleasure, someone who reminded her of her more fun college days -- but someone that she would never take seriously today.

And then she finds out that she is pregnant by this lovavble loser, and totally freaks out. On the Ben side, we could have seen some teeny tiny indication that he might have some genuine brains or talent or creativity -- maybe -- and Alison could alternate between hope and despair at his prospects.

Almost all the jokes save a couple could stay, and the stuff I'm suggesting would create its own humor, I still love Judd Apatow, but turns out he can't fully see the woman's point of view here.

In both relationships in this movie, guys who would still like to remain boys marry women whose primary (only?) characteristics are: (1) They're beautiful and (2) They're all serious and grown-up.

The idea that a man and a woman in a relationship should have something fundamental in common (even if they are outwardly very different) does not seem to enter anyone's mind. Oh, well. It was still a hilarous, sweet movie.