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T O P I C R E V I E W
randall
Posted - 05/07/2013 : 22:33:13 Admit I'm looking with longing at this aspect of life in the rear-view, but still THIS IS 40 is a poignant step forward for Judd Apatow. He here updates a couple from KNOCKED UP -- technically, this is a sequel -- but now we're all famous. Now we know Paul Rudd is again the Apatow avatar, but the writer-director raises the queasily-real bar by casting his own wife and two daughters as, um, his own wife and two daughters.
It helps that wife Leslie Mann is sublimely sexy AND credible as a mother b/c she actually is both. That little-girl voice that Isla Fisher has dined out upon comes to her naturally, as does her frequent flame-outs as She-Hulk. What digs is Apatow's identification of that existential weight that kneels on certain middle-aged folks: the realization that the end isn't an abstraction anymore. Not even when you see your *parents* remaking their lives.
Does it sound like I adored this one? I didn't. There was too much sophomoric humor [e.g., farts in bed] competing with actual changed lives, but Apatow brings so much pop to the griddle [the elder daughter is devoted to LOST, but only after a prodigious binging spree]. There's even a sly dig at J.J. Abrams, but one that only the fans of two cult creators might share.
Nope, this is worth a look, but it's gonna break down later in your life. You're gonna like it better in ten years' time. Trust me.
