DVD Review – This Is 40 (2012)

This Is 40, 2012.

Directed by Judd Apatow.
Starring Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Megan Fox and Jason Segel.

SYNOPSIS:

A ‘sort-of sequel’ to Knocked Up, following the characters of Pete and Debbie as they reluctantly approach their 40th birthdays.

Judd Apatow’s films have been criticised for their lack of discipline. This Is Forty…Minutes Too Long, was the big joke on its release. A 134 minute-long film starring his wife and two daughters? Accusations of self-indulgence were rife. In truth, he’s more like a good slice of Stilton. An acquired taste. 

This Is 40 is a ‘sort-of’ sequel to 2007’s Knocked Up (itself a trim 133 minutes). The movie follows the characters of Pete (Paul Rudd), Debbie (Leslie Mann) and their family, as both parents approach their 40th birthdays. For Debbie, it’s her third 38th birthday in a row. Pete barely knows the milestone’s coming, so caught up is he in his failing record label.

That’s because he recently signed 70s English rock star Graham Parker for a comeback album. Pete’s character is particularly very well observed. He’s so blinded by ‘real music’, like Parker’s, he can’t even ironically enjoy Nicki Minaj. It’s his loss. His two daughters, Sadie (Maude Apatow) and Charlotte (Iris Apatow), sing and dance along with their mother, while he looks on sour-faced. As testing as his wife is on certain issues, Pete is just as stubborn. He continues to flog Parker despite him no longer appealing to the mainstream. Just like how Pete and Debbie fear their own lives are increasingly irrelevant as they near their forth decade on this Earth.

This Is 40 is rich with such metaphors. At first, Sadie’s obsession with Lost might seem like another throwaway pop culture reference, like Parker, and perhaps an excuse to feature some of Michael Giacchino emotive score from the show. But it’s much deeper. Every cut to Jack looking up at the sky, or Locke surprising Sayed in the jungle, reflects a likewise moment in Debbie and Pete’s relationship. And there’s the title, of course. They’re lost.

And they take their misdirection out on each other. They fight and make-up. But then harbour resentment. So they fight and make-up again. And harbour more resentment. They make a plan to improve their lives. They go on a romantic getaway. But always, the resentment bubbles beneath, to inevitably boil over at the film’s climax. The cycle could seem repetitive, but each fight and make-up is bigger than the last, eventually concluding with the dreaded birthday party, which also neatly ties together the film’s rich cast of supporting characters and subplots.

It doesn’t sound like much of a comedy, and some have said the truths dealt with are too uncomfortable to watch. During Pete and Debbie’s fiercest argument, Apatow cuts to their youngest, Charlotte, absentmindedly hitting notes on a xylophone, their shouts muted by the walls. It’s a very honest moment, particularly for a director filming his own wife and daughter, and seems to have strayed in from a Mike Leigh movie being edited across the hall.

The film might wonder and seem unfocused, but it is exactly those traits that manage to capture something wholly authentic. That characters just appear and scenes seem to have no point only adds to the charm. The way jokes are riffed on for punch-line after punch-line after punch-line gives the movie an unhurried, non-cause-and-effect air. Just like real life.

Judd Apatow’s like a good slice of Stilton. An acquired taste. And mature. A lot more than he’d have you think.

Originally published June 24, 2013. Updated November 28, 2022.