Knocked Up (***)
After a month of rancid summer celluloid, Hollywood has its first certifiable, unique hit of the season with writer/director Judd Apatow’s (“The 40 Year Old Virgin”) “Knocked Up.” It won’t come close to pocketing the box office cash like the “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Spiderman” and “Shrek” sequels, but sometimes raking in revenue equivalent to the GNP of Greenland isn’t as important as fresh, wet-your-pants comedy.
“Knocked Up” is somewhat of a coming out party for two up and coming actors – Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl. Rogen is best known for his role as Cal in 2005’s “The 40 Year Old Virgin” and Heigl is best known as Izzie Stevens on television’s “Grey’s Anatomy.” It might be unfathomable for some Hollywood suits to bank a movie’s success on two largely unproven talents, but the genius of Apatow’s writing and fill-in-the-gaps supporting cast are what carries the film. Watching the movie is like watching a well-oiled machine. Everyone knows their role and the harmony and cohesion between script and delivery is near flawless.
When the film opens we meet Ben Stone (Seth Rogen), a twenty-something stoner-cum-website entrepreneur living with his four stoner pals. In between smoking marijuana, drinking, kickboxing and ping pong, the group spends their time cataloging nude scenes for their joint business venture, a website entitled “Flesh of the Stars.com.” Ben has no money and no social life outside his band of misfits, something he tells his father he is happy with. He tells is dad he is “living his vision.”
On the other side of the coin is Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl), a beautiful, non-stoner working for the “E!” entertainment news channel. Alison has just been promoted to on-camera work and celebrates with a night of clubbing with her older sister, Debbie (Leslie Mann). Debbie is married to Pete (Paul Rudd) and has two kids. She is a mother figure to Alison, even letting Alison live in her guest house. It is during the sisters’ night of clubbing that Ben and Alison meet. After much imbibing, the inevitable happens and Alison wakes the next morning, horrified to find a hairy, butt crack sporting sloth in her bed. After a perfunctory breakfast, the episode is catalogued into the mistake file and closed.
Flash forward a few months and Alison soon discovers she is pregnant. Stunned, Alison envisions her life imploding. In her mind, this pregnancy could end her promising career at E! News. Her mom tells her to get an abortion, but Alison refuses and instead contacts Ben and breaks the news that he is a daddy. In her mind, the only right thing to do is develop a relationship with Ben so the baby will have two parents in its life. So, Ben and Alison start over and begin to date and start to truly fall in love. Two people, who have been extremely focused on their own needs, now have a baby and each other to worry about.
And that’s just the foundation of the movie. Throw in bits on child predators, fantasy baseball, baby shopping and thousands of pop culture references, and you can see why I was slapping my knee and reaching for the adult undergarments throughout the movie. Truthfully, it’s a full fledged comedy dream team. You have superstars – Rogen and Rudd, and then bit players like Apatow’s wife, Leslie Mann, and Ben’s four roommates – Jason Segel, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill and Martin Starr. Looking at the cast bios, it’s easy to see why this works. Nearly everyone in “Knocked Up” has worked together from the beginning.
“Knocked Up” is funny and heartwarming and one of the funniest films to hit theaters in the last 10 years. It’s definitely worth the full-price ticket. It is rated R for language, drug use, sexual situations and some nudity, so parents should be wary of anyone younger than 17 sneaking off to this movie with their pals.