This is 40 - Review

Have you seen my starfish?

I probably should've gathered from the title that This is 40 would be a whiny film.  I love Paul Rudd.  Leslie Mann does a fine job.  But they're trapped by a screenplay that heavily tips the scale towards the negativity of going over the hill.  The film oscillates between moments of hilarity and extended moments of the main couple fighting.  For over 2 hours.  It never quite reaches the level of uncomfortability that Apatow's Funny People reached, thank God, but the jokes are often outweighed by the characters' unease with themselves and their lives.  Even the pop culture references that define Apatow's works don't hit home as well as they have in other films.  The hotel sequence pictured above was brilliant, the Indian doctor was pretty hilarious, and the repartee between Rudd and Mann often entertains.  But the fact of the matter is that This is 40 could've been great, but just came up short.

3 out of 5

Note: I don't own the rights to any of the photos on this website.  They're copied here from Google images for entertainment purposes only.