Knocked Up film review

certificate_15

KNOCKED UP

Ever since Slacker, Richard Linklater's 1991 comedy about a group of young loafing misfits, American cinema has frequently exploited slacker culture for laughs, most notably in Kevin Smith's Clerks. Frequently funny, occasionally sweet but, at more than two hours, unnecessarily long, Knocked Up is the latest example. Written and directed by Judd Apatow, Knocked Up shares the same sensibility as Apatow's breakthrough success, The 40 Year Old Virgin. This is not sophisticated or subtle humour, but it is funny, which ultimately is the most important yardstick by which to judge a comedy.

The majority of its laughs are generated by its bearded, cuddly bear of a star, Seth Rogen, who plays the slothful, tactless and uncomplicated Ben Stone. Ben's surname is apt considering his sole ambition in life, beyond sleeping, is to get high with his slacker mates. The 25 year-old Rogen, whose working relationship with Apatow extends back to the cultish, short-lived TV series Freaks And Geeks, concedes that the similarities between himself and his character of Stone are alarmingly abundant.

The frat house existence enjoyed by Stone and his four friends, Jay (Jay Baruchel, Jonah (Jonah Hill), Martin (Martin Star) and Jason (Jason Segel) centers around ridiculing Martin's new beard (eg: "Your face looks like Robin Williams' knuckles.") and creating a website that lists the on-screen nude scenes of actresses. When the boys are at a nightclub, Seth meets up with the beautiful and ambitious Alison (Katherine Heigl) who is there with her older married sister Debbie (Leslie Mann) to celebrate Alison's promotion to TV presenter. Despite being completely ill-matched, the jarring cogs of their personalities become lubricated with alcohol and they end up in bed together.

When Alison wakes up sober and Ben's crass and slovenly manner is more sharply in focus, she extricates herself as quickly as possible and has no intention of ever seeing Ben again. However, when she discovers herself pregnant, she reluctantly contacts him to discuss what to do. Even with a child involved, it's hard to imagine someone as driven and successful as Alison ever contemplating trying to forge a relationship with someone like Ben, but then I guess morality is a subjective and personal judgment.