When he revisited The Daily Show to promote his movie, Steve Carell told Jon Stewart that the posters were freaking his kids out. Looking at the poster, I can’t say I blame them. Still, you have to respect the man for coming up with a character so strong that the only advertisement needed for the movie was a single photo. No crazy ensemble photo, no shots of Steve looking uncomfortable around women, just a big geeky smile and a polo shirt.
When KT went to see it, she told me that this was the funniest movie she’d seen in a long time. I asked how it compared to Dodgeball and Anchorman, and she didn’t hesitate at all before saying it was much better. I loved Dodgeball, and even the poorly-assembled Anchorman had its moments. Still, KT was correct. This movie blows them out of the water.
There’s a reason that these films get lumped together – there’s a lot of crossover among the casts. From Old School to Starsky & Hutch to Dodgeball to Anchorman to The 40 Year-Old Virgin. Not only do many of the same actors star in these films, but they also overlap in directors and producers. There’s a growing market for these goofy “dumb” comedy fims, and I love almost all of them, but the Virgin takes the cake.
One of the problems with many of the other movies, especially Anchorman, is that they often feel like they’re stretching to fill the full 90 minutes. Like a bad Saturday Night Live sketch, you walk out laughing at the funny moments, but a bit irritated at all the filler and fluff it took to connect them all. In Virgin, Carell managed to deliver a script that grabs you in the first moments and won’t let go until the very end. There’s some fluff here, but for the most part the movie is expertly edited to cruise past the unneeded stuff and get us from scene to scene.
Plus, Anchorman and Dodgeball relied on odd situations and extreme characters who, while funny, were hard to relate to. Virgin’s main character, Andy, is the everyman. It is alarmingly easy to identify with him. He’s not a socially inept loser (well, maybe a bit), and he’s not ugly. He’s just had a phenomenal unlucky streak, and has quit trying. He reads comics, plays video games, and enjoys life. At no point do you get the feeling that Andy is an “ugly duckling” type of character, who will lose his glassed, get a haircut and magically find confidence at the end of the movie. Andy is pushed and pulled by his friends into the world of dating. While he does rather magically find the right girl right away, he also has a few horrifyingly bad first attempts.
Carell refuses to pull his punches or use the standard romantic comedy cliches. He presents a situation that seems tired and played out, and then turns it on its head. Instead of getting a haircut and magically becoming handsome, Andy tries to get his chest waxed and is turned into a man-o-lantern. Later on, when he’s experiencing the typical misunderstanding-that-could-destroy-the-fragile-relationship moment, he’s chasing the girl on his bike, and crashes into a billboard truck. And while his friends mean well, almost every piece of advice they give him turns out badly.
The backup characters are hardly disposable, either. Andy’s coworker in the stockroom is a redneck who reminds me of the neighbor from Office Space. His other friend (Paul Rudd) is still lamenting his last relationship, and is ready to give up on women for awhile. And his black friend (sigh) gets Andy to stand up to his girlfriend for him, which gives us some great lines with Andy trying to use ebonics. They’re a bit two-dimensional, but they serve nicely as counterpoints to Andy himself, and add extra kick to any scene. Not to mention the crazy Indian coworkers or his older, uncomfortably flirtatious boss.
It’s hard to describe, because when I write these jokes out, they sound somewhat trite, or overdone. The black friend? Really? Bad advice? Who knew! Bad haircuts – Hilarious! But if you’ve ever watched the Daily Show, you know that Carell can work magic with a good poker face and a serious reading of a rediculous line.
In the end, nothing I say can sum it up. If you’ve seen Dodgeball or Anchorman, you’ve got a good idea what the movie is like. But you need to crank it up to eleven. This movie is the best example of its genre so far, and that’s saying quite a bit.