Review of This Is 40 (2012) by Panta O — 05 Jun 2013

This comedy was unexpectedly funny! Written, co-produced and directed by Judd Apatow stars Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann. The story follows middle-aged married couple Pete and Debbie as they each turn 40, with their jobs and daughters adding stress to their relationship. Their solutions to the problems are sometimes like adding fuel to the fire... and probably that was the part which was funny with a couple of stars perfectly fitting the characters in this spin-off comedy which didn't had much of the story - of course you can always take aging and everyday life as a story, but that didn't work well for me. It was funny but I would prefer that all that laughter was packed in about 90 minutes instead of 133 minutes - the film would have more punch and would not lost anything significant - there were a few boring parts with unnecessary supporting characters I could enjoy without.

I really enjoyed the most Leslie Mann's performance - she is uniquely skilful and can deliver sweetness and venom without too much effort! Rudd was close to her but somehow lost in the scenes where he had to build up the atmosphere - it seems he didn't put too much of an effort of getting involved fully and simply followed the script.

Check it out - maybe you can be closer with the director's views of the feelings for husbands, wives, parents, and children that we categorize as love - to me was funny but not close.