Review of Knocked Up (2007) by Anne L — 01 Jan 2013

Writer-director Judd Apatow's KNOCKED UP qualifies as a hilarious comedy about heterosexual relationships. This Universal Pictures release is no dumb schmuck farce where the jokes are more memorable than the cast.

Moreover, it is about taking responsibility for one's actions. Polar opposites meet, and the woman winds up pregnant. They struggle together to commit to their future child, but life is no picnic for them.

A female television production assistant celebrates her promotion by taking the guy who bought her a beer home to indulge into the dirty deed. He misunderstands her in a drunken hormonal frenzy and shirks a condom.

Eight weeks later, the truth clobbers them like a sledgehammer. Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl are cast as products from two wholly different cultures. As Ben Stone, Rogen plays a twenty-three year old Canadian-born pot-smoking slacker living illegally in Los Angeles off the loot he won from a court settlement over an accident.

When he hooks up with Allison, Ben has $900 left in the bank. He is living with five other guys and collaborating on an Internet website called Flesh of the Stars. The last thing that Ben thought possible was having sex with a cute babe chick.

Alison Scott works on the staff of E!, the Entertainment Show. The last thing Alison was prepared for is conceiving a child by a guy who she has never seen before she met him in a bar trying to get a brew from the bartender.

They are drawn together by the circumstances of the pregnancy. Alison refuses to use her sister's gynecologist and searches for her own. Meanwhile, when Apatow isn't focusing on the stormy relationship between Alison and Ben, he is dealing with the trials and tribulations of Pete and Debbie Scott's marriage.

Paul Rudd and Mrs. Judd Apatow Leslie Mann fill those roles with panache. Debbie is a possessive wife and Pete has problems with her dominance. The cast is absolutely perfect, and Kristen Wigg steals every scene in which she appears.

If you don't like comedies that use the F-word over a 100 times, you might reconsider watching Apatow's sophomore epic.