Movie Review: This is 40

Turning 40 strains the relationship between a married couple, Debbie(Leslie Mann) and Pete(Paul Rudd). Bringing up two kids, struggling with their business and quirky parents add to their challenges. Their 13 year old is no longer adolescent with dramatic outbursts while their 8 year old is still a kid. Pete's record label is not successful while Debbie's boutique is losing money. Pete's dad(Albert Brooks) is dependent on him for money while Debbie's dad(John Lithgow) distances himself away from his daughter. All these factors comes in a collision path as Pete and Debbie turns 40.

Judd Apatow is adept at making comedies by building a script around a single issue. He concentrates on the humorous part of the issue. Turning older has been treated as the issue here. I like to call this a spin-off as the characters appeared in his earlier movie about accidental pregnancy, Knocked up. It is always fun to watch a dysfunctional family because we all connect to such families in our way. But Judd Apatow gives a mixed bag experience primarily because of the length of the movie. At 133 minutes, the movie is long. We may forgive the length if the script is built in such a way that events are smoothly transitioned forward. Instead, the movie ends up still, refusing to move forward at times, while it is filled with many funny scenes.

Still there are entertaining factors namely the performances of Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann. Their expressions are natural. They make a funny line into a hilarious one. They have great chemistry. All these factors actually make us overlook the slow pace and also make a serious scene into a comic one. Albert Brooks plays the role he has played many times before. John Lithgow has nothing much to add. Jason Segel and Megan Fox adds to the star quotient on the screen.

If you have nothing else to do, this provides a good escape.

Language: English 

Genre: Comedy

Rating: ***

For trailer, click here.

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