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Andy (Steve Carell) may be 40 and a virgin with a low-level job working in shipping and receiving at an electronics store, but he is content to ride his bike home every night to his apartment filled with action figures, movie posters, and other collectibles. At least he's happy until his co-workers find out he's never had sex and take it upon themselves to get Andy a woman. They take him to a bar to meet easy drunk women (which ends in a rather nasty situation); they have him practice on the cute girl (Elizabeth Banks) who works in the bookstore across the street; they even give him all the pointers they know but nothing seems to work. Until Trish (Catherine Keener) walks into the store and Andy falls hard - they eventually start dating (after more lessons from the guys) and decide to "take it slow", which is fine with Andy, but if they go any slower Andy is going to die a virgin.
As it turns out, Andy's buddies aren't all that thrilled with their sex lives either - David (Paul Rudd) is obsessing over the girl he lost 2 years ago; Jay (Romany Malco) is a playa with a girlfriend he has to lie to constantly; Cal (Seth Rogen) is mostly talk; and the boss (Jane Lynch) offers to help Andy get over his condition because she wants a little action on the side - no strings attached.
At first you think this is going to be another one of those "guy comedies"
where the jokes are raunchy, gross, offensive, or they include an excessive
amount of bodily fluids (although sometimes crass can be funny - it's not
in this case). About halfway through the movie, it takes a huge turn -
it settles down into a rhythm that works. It gets sweet (but not sickeningly
so), the humor rises above the juvenile-frat level (but not too far), and
the characters turn out to be more than 2-dimensional stereotypes. Steve
Carell does a terrific job of being the introvert (without being pathetic
or annoying) as well as the guy coming out of his shell with an innocent
charm that's quite endearing.
A lot of the scenes look like sketch bits that don't really advance the
story: Steve Carell suffering through a chest waxing (for real), the guys
watching naughty videos and horror films on the store TVs, the running
comments about "You know how I know you're gay," and the big
choreographed production number at the end. That's not to say they aren't
really funny, but...
This goes on far too long for a comedy. It makes it hard to recommend, because you have to see some of the stuff that happens in the first hour to really appreciate the second, but it also makes it more difficult to get into the movie when the first half is not all that. It's a tough call, but it might be better as a rental (at least you'll probably get bloopers and other goodies then).
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