This is the first time I've been able to read a screenplay of a film before it was released into theaters and was then able to go watch the film a few weeks later to see how it stacks up. Another instance something similar like this happened was back in college. I was instructed to read the screenplay Brokeback Mountain for an assignment. I hadn't seen the film, but after reading what was, honestly, a remarkable script, I saw the movie and I was, well... underwhelmed. It was mostly the directorial choices of Ang Lee sort of skimming over what I thought to be the most important and poignant moments of the film. After having read (and reviewed) the This is 40 screenplay, I was desperately hoping it wouldn't fall into the same pitfall. Thankfully, it mostly didn't.
What was a bit of a downer was the fact that I'm sure the script that I read was an up-to-date post-production script that had the most current dialogue from the already finished film. What's great about Judd Apatow films is he lets his actors improvise. Some of these improvisations (including a hilarious rant in this film by Melissa McCarthy) tend to lend to the biggest laughs in his films. But, with the script being almost a transcript of the film, I wasn't able to be surprised at the improvs. I would've rather been able to read his finished script before he let his actors let loose and have some fun to be able to compare and contrast from the original text. This is obviously no fault of Apatow or the film itself, but it was a little disappointing.
What does reflect poorly on ol' Apatow is something he's been guilty of almost every movie he's produced or directed: the alternate or cut takes on the trailer. All of his trailers show scenes or lines or moments from the film, moments that viewers attach to, moments that make them want to see the film or the scene surrounding the line, that are inevitably left on the cutting room floor. Some of these moments show up in the film as alternate takes from the aforementioned improvisations his actors do, but some of these moments are just cut from the film altogether. Almost every instance I've noticed of this have resulted in the scene or the line being weaker than what it was in the trailer. In Knocked Up, when Alison tells Ben she's pregnant, he responds, in the trailer: "...with emotion?" However, in the film when she relays this information, his reaction has changed to an unsatisfactory "fuck you." Several moments like this show up in This is 40. A prime example, when Debbie (Leslie Mann) is feeling up her employee Desi's (Meagan Fox) boobs, she remarks, "this feels like memory foam. Like a tempur pedic." But, in one of the trailers as she's getting her grope on the joke isn't so obvious and much funnier when she says, "I feel like I could put a glass of wine on this one and jiggle this one and the wine wouldn't fall down." This isn't the only instance either, but each one that I noticed missing from the film had an alternate line that made me wish for the original line that was seen in the trailer.
But what about the movie as a whole? I think it's great. As a budding comedy writer whenever I leave a movie like that it always makes me wish I had the talent to write that well. Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann are perfect in the reprisals of Debbie and Pete. They're a constantly bickering couple who, at times, hate the living piss out of one another, yet the love is never gone from their eyes. I've read a lot of reviews, not so much condemning the film for being bad or unfunny, but condemning Apatow for writing something so personal and so close to home starring his own wife and children that it becomes self-indulgent. Now, to an extent I can see how it might seem a little off putting or creepy to have almost a voyeuristic insight into Apatow's home life, but I don't think that the casting should come into consideration of what is a good and somewhat realistic story of married life. I believe that anyone willing to go see the movie will be able to relate to it in one way or another. I'm not married and have never been, however there were elements of Pete and Debbie's relationship-- both good moments and bad-- that I saw in my own relationship. Just because Apatow is able to, I assume, draw from real life experiences and the woman portraying the character he's written is played by his own wife should not be a means of scrutinizing an entire film that is actually quite good.
There isn't much of a plot to This is 40, there isn't much going on other than a look inside the life of your average upper/middle class family struggling with everyday problems. Financial issues, trust issues, adolescent issues, abandonment issues, and relationship issues. Granted, if I had as many problems occur in a single week as these two do, I don't think I'd be able to handle it for long. And while this isn't Apatow's best film, it's certainly not his weakest. He's maturing as a writer and as a director. Five years ago there would've been a cavalcade of cameos by each of the Apatow rat pack members getting high or scene stealing but adding nothing overall to the flow of the story. But almost none of them show up save for Jason Segal. That's right friends, sorry to disappoint, but there is no Seth Rogen cameo either, which doesn't cheapen the movie in the slightest.
I was right about one thing based on my initial reading of the script... Albert Brooks steals every scene he's in. He's wonderful as Pete's mooching father who really doesn't know how to say the right thing and whether he means to or not, is often the instigation of a majority of their fights. Now, I realize that this movie isn't going to be for everyone. I feel as though there will be people who can't stand to watch this family fight and bicker and spat at one another while they have it so much better than most. I agree that it's hard to empathize with a 13 year old who cries because her iPad was taken away, when I, myself, will probably never be able to afford the luxury of an iPad. But, those who can enjoy the film will see that the iPad can represent anything taken from a spoiled child from a toy to a computer.
This is 40 isn't going to be Judd Apatow's shining achievement, remembered by all twenty years from now as the day comedy was resurrected, but it's also not going to fade into the obscurity of page eight of your recommended Netflix watches (like The Guilt Trip will). Know what you're going into is not Knocked Up, but a real and raw look at a real and raw family going through life struggles that emulate life realistically, but also in comedic fashion. It's also very, very funny. Even if you hate every single second of the (admittedly) overlong film, I can guarantee that it will be impossible not to laugh.
B
No comments:
Post a Comment