This Is 40
Starring: Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann
Directed By: Judd Apatow
Reviewed by Danielle Muir

[rating: 3.5/5]

This is an ode to women who lie about their age, men who lie about their diet to their women and anyone who’s ever suffered a mid-life crisis whilst having whiney pre-teens chuck tantrums about how you’re ruining their life.  And other such weary plights and afflictions of the modern family.  This Is 40, whilst probably being funnier than one’s average life, certainly reflects a few all-to-familiar sentiments of the everyday suburban husband wife and two children household.

Proclaimed as a spin-off from 2007’s Knocked Up by director Judd Apatow, This Is 40 focuses its attention on Debbie (Heigel’s sister in the first), her husband Pete and their two young daughters.  Both Debbie and Pete have hit the big 4-0 in the same week, however one seems to have accepted this fact, whilst the other proclaims it’s actually 38 instead.  Guess which one’s which.  With the slow realisation that their marriage seems to be based on a mutual dislike for one another, Debbie frantically tries to overhaul the family’s lifestyle, including a cleaner diet (as Pete seems to subsist solely on cupcakes), restrictions on technology (to the disgust of her eldest daughter) and to curb her own secret smoking habit.  And in the lead-up to Pete’s birthday party, we get to see whether this truly makes them better people, whether being 40 calls for mass changes in your lifestyle or whether it’s worth abandoning all resolve and living happier instead of living longer.

I understand that Apatow films always seem to stretch over the 2 hour mark, however just because it is doesn’t mean it should be.  Whilst This Is 40 has a great opening run and keeps the comedy solidly flowing throughout, there is a point where you actively realise the film has been taking its sweet time to wrap up – something I believe shouldn’t be noticeable in a film of the right length.

Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd are both great at their own brand of comedy schtick that they pull out – Rudd with his sweet, somewhat oblivious and cuddly nature matching Mann’s somewhat volatile and whiney methods of telling Pete he’s wrong.  What This Is 40 captures well is the stage of the relationship where the majority of conversations end in bickering or picking a fight, simply because there’s few other things to discuss.  Throw in monetary problems, addictions, overeating and moody children and This Is 40 pretty much covers the spectrum of suburban family issues, which presented through Apatow’s lense is hilarious.  But it’s the children (Apatow and Mann’s own) which seem to have comedy born into their blood, with the eldest highly dramatic girl hitting puberty portrayal being equally as funny as the younger siblings’ cutesy nonsense, who unsurprisingly becomes the moral centre when events really hit the fan.

So despite some unneeded length, This Is 40 is actually quite a solid look at what it’s like to hit the dreaded 4-0 and how some people might want to combat such a dreadful occasion with a lifestyle overhaul.  With definitely more than a few laugh out loud moments thrown in for good measure.