First with virginity, now pregnancy, director Judd Apatow scores another comedy hit.
While at a club, the toking party-animal Ben (Seth Rogen) meets the career-driven Alison (Katherine Heigl), who is out celebrating her promotion as the new host for popular TV network E! With a little chemistry and a lot of alcohol the two end up having a one night stand. What they find out the next morning is that they have so little in common that they decide not to see each other again.
Eight weeks later, after an embarrassing but funny interview with Spider-Man 3’s James Franco, Alison discovers that she is pregnant and meets up with Ben to tell him the big news. They each consult their parents for advice and weigh the options, coming to an agreement. They’re going to have the baby and, in the meantime, try to develop a relationship.
It seems an impossible task for the opposites, Alison still immersing herself in her work while Ben’s only real ambition is to one day run an adult website with his friends. While Ben’s sweet and funny veneer can charm Alison, he still needs to prove to her that he cares more about her than his bong.
In addition to Seth Rogen, writer and director Judd Apatow cast his actors from The 40-Year-Old Virgin to provide comedy gold, like Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd as Alison’s sister and brother-in-law, Debbie and Pete. Although they look to the married couple as model parents, Alison and Ben find out that Debbie and Pete have anything but an ideal relationship.
What’s great about Apatow’s stories is how realistic they are. The plots aren’t thickened with the fluff that many romantic comedy writers add to the already formulaic genre. No cheesy lines, no cosmic coincident--just real awkward situations with honest reactions.
Apatow’s success is also in part of his loveable, relatable characters. With good writing and good improvisation, Knocked Up represents a new kind of comedy that is more accessible to a mass audience.
It is this appeal of his characters that also sets up Apatow’s downfall. It might be easier on both of them to have an abortion, but Alison and Ben try to “do the right thing,” and it’s this determination that makes them a little too perfect. Despite Apatow’s own pro-choice views, he wrote about characters who keep an illegitimate child and try to fall in love in the nine months before its birth.
“Something,” said Apatow, “most people don’t do.”
While Ben is still no ideal mate for Alison, his only struggles are part of what society calls “growing up,” which he seems to do pretty flawlessly and without much grief from his friends. His commitment to Alison and bettering his life makes Ben the best boyfriend that never existed.
However, the character interactions and situations in the movie are delightful, especially that of Rogen and Rudd, who excellently play off of one another. The cast and crew proves Knocked Up to be worthy of a spotlight amongst this year’s comedy knockouts.
