The Movie Guru

by Brandon Athey
Features Editor

Of all the films I had the chance to see this previous summer, the movie that by which I was most entertained was the recent hit comedy “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” starring Steve Carrell. Although the film seems to be just another entry in a string of recent sex comedies (like the “American Pie” series) upon first superficial glance, the film manages to be quite witty and it has a heartfelt sensibility that most romantic comedies only dream of having.

The story centers on a kind, middle-aged electronics store clerk named Andy (played by Carrell) who happens to be a late bloomer when it comes to amorous interactions with the opposite sex. After numerous ill-fated attempts to no longer be a stranger in the ways of the ladies, he meets and falls in love with a woman (played by “Being John Malkovitch's” Catherine Keener) who runs a store that puts items on E-Bay. However, there is a catch. She doesn't know about Andy's lack of experience, and the relationship is based on a “no-sex” agreement. To say any more about Andy's odyssey of self-discovery and love would be revealing too much.

For me, the film was a very pleasant surprise this past summer. As much as I enjoyed “The Wedding Crashers” (the raunchy humor in both makes them comparable in my opinion), I found that its last half was slow and needed more narrative punch. Another reason I enjoyed the film so much was that, after a summer riddled with explosions, the ADD-plagued incoherence of Michael Bay, lightsabers (I do love my “Star Wars,” but there's only so much of George Lucas overexposure one can take), a penguin movie without the presence of Danny DeVito, and completely moronic ignorance (“Stealth,” “The Dukes of Hazzard”), it was nice to see a summer movie that actually made it fun to go to the cinema again without feeling like all my senses must be assaulted in order for me to have a pleasant moviegoing experience. “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” may not be high art, but for a commercial release, it was a quite enjoyable 3.5 star experience.