Knocked Up: Seriously Funny

Romantic comedies, like most other genre films, are usually good at best; rarely are they great. One problem is that if the romance is to be taken seriously, the movie has to occasionally be, well, serious. This of course can detract from the comedy, as well as having potential pitfalls of its own. We're not talking serious drama here, which leads all too easily to a finger-in-the-throat reaction. The comedy, for its part, can all too easily exhaust its potential for premise-based jokes, and either succumb to stupidity, or disappear entirely.

Judd Apatow's second film, Knocked Up, is that rare mix of gut-busting humor and touching-but-not-saccharine light drama which is often attempted and so rarely acheived. Much like his first film, The 40 Year Old Virgin, the idea for which should have led to a disaster but instead it was brilliant, this film shows writer/director Apatow's skill in dealing with unusual subjects, which could easily be one-joke movies, or unfunny sap-fests. Instead, in Apatow's hands, they become original, funny, and real. In short, this is a contemporary classic in the romantic comedy genre.

The film stars Seth Rogen as Ben Stone, a slacker-stoner whose greatest ambition is to launch a website detailing the exact time any given actress gets nude in any given movie. Nevertheless, he's a good-hearted, caring individual, who is of course capable of redeeming himself. Rogen, an Apatow regular, has always had an immensely likable on-screen charm, and delivers a wonderful performance in his starring role debut. He's consistently funny (and vulgar), but also convincing as the nice-guy-who-never-gets-the-girl type.

Katherine Heigl plays Alison Scott, an up and comer in entertainment media. She is smart, succesful, ambitious, responsible, and good-looking. She is out of Ben's league. And yet they meet. And talk. And have sex.

The next day, Alison clearly feels that she has had drunken sex with someone she ordinarily wouldn't be with, but Ben is oblivious. Over breakfast, she clearly bristles at his inability to grasp their myriad differences, but once again, this would be news to Ben. She is evasive when he asks for her number, but he gives her enough information to contact him (he doesn't have a phone right now, he tells her, because of a "billing problem").

One might expect at this point that he never hears from her again, but that wouldn't be any fun, would it? Of course, as we all know from the title, she gets pregnant. She tracks him down, and the rest of the movie concerns her attempts to deal with her pregnancy, and to figure out what she needs/wants from Ben, and his attempts to prove himself worthy to her.

The romance is handled sweetly without being cloying, and dare I say, realistically? Judd Apatow's TV shows, Freaks and Geeks, and Undeclared were improv driven. Seth Rogen was on both those shows, and it's hard to believe some of those same techniques weren't used in this movie. Although I don't have information to that effect, Ben's friends all have the same first name as the actor who plays them, which I think supports the theory. In any event, it would explain how Rogen is able to come across so naturally.

The supporting cast is equally impressive. From to Paul Rudd, as Alison's restless, sarcastic brother-in-law, to Jason Segel as Ben's lecher friend, the movie is full of minor characters who keep the laughs coming, without getting in the way. The multi-talented Harold Ramis also appears in two scenes as Ben's dad, but the scene-stealing Kristen Wiig turns in the most memorable performance with her portrayal of Jill, one of Alison's bosses. It would be impossible to give an example here, because the hilarity was all in the delivery.

Knocked Up expertly weaves romance and comedy, but for me, the romance was satisfying but inevitable. The true measure of this movie's success is that it is ridiculously funny. It's hard to be that funny, especially over the course of a whole movie, and I'm always thankful when someone pulls it off, because who doesn't like to laugh?