Knocked Up

Finally got around to seeing "Knocked Up" at the movies last night. There were advance screenings on this weekend, and the plan was to watch it Friday night. But things came up, and the plans were deferred to Saturday night. We made it as far as the cinema on Saturday night, but when we got there it was almost sold out, with a queue of 50 odd people waiting to buy tickets. We turned around and went home.

I was frustrated. Perhaps even angry. But I wasn't going to let this movie beat me. Sunday afternoon I went online to preorder tickets to the Sunday night session. Now when you do things like this, sometimes people will make fun of you. They will say "It's Sunday night at Arndale, as if it's going to sell out." But once again, the session did sell out, and I felt vindicated as we sat there in a cinema full of people. (It's really weird watching a movie in a packed theatre - I'm so used to sitting there with perhaps ten or so other viewers, you forget how loud it can be with a few hundred people laughing together).

Anyway, on to the movie itself . . . it was written and directed by Judd Apatow, who also did "The 40 Year Old Virgin". Despite the somewhat lewd subject matter, I really liked this film for the humanity in the characters - they didn't just take the easy way out with the jokes and handled the issues (reasonably) sensitively. "Knocked Up" is along the same lines - it is at times quite coarse, but also at times quite insightful.

The general plot is as follows . . ..

Ben is an unemployed, slightly overweight, weed-smoking slacker who lives in a big share house with a group of his slacker friends. Alison is a bright, ambitious, beautiful television producer, who has just been given a promotion to on-air presenter. While celebrating over drinks at a club she runs into Ben, they hit it off, and spend the night together at her place. The next morning they realise they have almost nothing in common, and go their separate ways. But eight weeks later she finds out she's pregnant, and contacts Ben to tell him he's the father. They then try and navigate their way through the responsibilities they now have to each other and the baby, and how this changes them (more so Ben really).

I really liked the guy who plays Ben, Seth Rogen, in this. He'd had smaller parts in "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and "You, Me and Dupree", but this was his first big role in a major movie. Paul Rudd was good too as Alison's brother in law. As I mentioned, the movie is pretty full on - the language isn't great, and there are a lot of what I guess you would call "adult concepts". It was funny though, and it did have a surprising amount of depth for a film of this type. If the language isn't something that will put you off, definitely check this out.