I meant to write this last week, but you know my life. So here it is now 
My brother gave Sarah and I a very nice Christmas Gift: a date! He gave us 2 movie tickets and agreed to babysit our kids while we went out for dinner and a movie. Now, he lives in Thunder Bay, so the only night he could actually babysit was on New Years Eve. Sarah and I didn’t really want to fight the crowds on New Years Eve in the evening, so we decided to go in the afternoon instead (after all, our kids are asleep in the evening, we’d much rather escape while they are awake!)
So we were getting out of the house! We were going to see a movie! Would we be super intelligent and philosophical and examine the existential and epistemological themes explored in Life of Pi? Would we go the culturally savvy and historical route by taking in a delightful romp through the French revolution in song and see Les Miserable? or would we see the latest Judd Apatow film and watch 2 hours of fart jokes.
FART JOOOOOOKES!
this image has been used under the “fair use” clause of the international copyright laws. I do not own it or claim any proprietorial rights to it.
We decided to go see This is 40, and truthfully, we were not disappointed. Now, fair warning, this is a Judd Apatow film, and as such it is rude, crude, and full of attitude. There is a certain air of vulgarity about the whole thing that you either have the stomach for or you don’t. There is also a lot of sex scenes and a fair amount of nudity, although, oddly not very sexual nudity. Needless to say Sarah and I spent a good deal of the film covering each others eyes, or gazing into each others eyes rather than at the awkward nudity on screen. We were aware of the scenes before they came so we were prepared to avert our eyes. If you check out IMDB there is a parental guidance section on most titles that will let you know about any objectionable material. The issue with this section is it is user updated, so if no one has yet seen the movie or felt the need to update the parental guidance section then you can sometimes be left in the dark on a subject. If you can get past the rude, crude, and the nude, what is left is a very honest, often moving exploration of marriage and midlife. While I am still a ways off from 40 I did find this movie very relateable in the ways the husband and wife relate to each other and their kids. Not that Sarah and I interact with each other the way this couple does, or that we interact with our kids, or our parents the way this couple does. Make no mistake, everyone in this movie is highly dysfunctional, but at the end of the day it is clear that they love each other. This movie paints marriage as fragile, precious, and a lot of hard work, it also paints it as worth it. Too many movies show marriage as this fairy tail romance thing where the honey moon never ends. Alternatively it gets painted as something cheap, disposable and easily replaceable. This movie was different. It doesn’t hide anything from the viewer. Marriage has these few precious moments where you are totally in love with your spouse, and the rest is really hard work. Don’t get me wrong, it’s totally worth it! But it’s also really hard. There is this amazing scene where the wife walks in on her husband taking pictures of his rear end with his iPhone and a vanity mirror, trying to figure out the source of his recent discomfort while riding his bike. She acts freaked out, and he asks her to help identify the problem, she responds with “Can’t we maintain just an iota of mystery in our relationship?” Which to me, summed up what marriage is. You expect it to be this beautiful, magical, jounrey (thanks, Disney!) but it’s a lot of telling the difference between a hemorrhoid and a fissure.
There are so many great moments in this flick about the stupid little lies and omitions we tell our spouses that they totally know about (and it goes both ways, for example, the husband always sneaks cupcakes, and the wife hides her smoking). They also talk pretty freely about their frustrations with each other. The thing I liked most about it though, is even at their worst, they are a team. With the exception of a few arguments, they never treat each other with disrespect, or lessen their value to each other; and when it comes down to it they have each others backs.
The acting in this movie was great, although I feel like it would have been awkward at times during the filming seeing that Leslie Mann (the wife) is actually married to the director, Judd Apetow, and she has a number of sex scenes and a bit of nudity. The girls who play the two daughters in the movie are actually Leslie Mann’s kids though, so it was really convincing, and they were amazing actors in their own rights. The writing was quite witty in many regards, and Paul Rudd really makes his character feel real (and by extension the relationship between him and Leslie, who also did a great job.) There is also an AMAZING improv scene that you need to wait until the end of the film to see as it plays during the credits. Melissa McCarthy really brings her A game as she spouts out all kinds of crazy and makes everyone on set fall over with laughter. It was truly magical.
Once again, if you can look past all the crude jokes and nudity then this is a great flick. I recommend it (with hesitation for the aforementioned reasons). Be prepared to cover your eyes in a few places, to have your ideas of marriage either challenged or exposed, and to be thoroughly moved and entertained. I give this 4 out of 5 stars. It would have got a full 5 if it weren’t for all the nudies.
Jeff
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