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The 40-Year-Old Virgin is a comedy film starring Steve Carell and directed by Judd Apatow, released on August 19, 2005. The film follows the attempts of Andy Stitzer (Carell), a 40-year-old man, to finally have a sexual relationship with a woman.

The movie, co-written by both Carell and Apatow, also stars Catherine Keener and Paul Rudd. It features Nancy Walls, Carell's wife.

Plot summary

• Taglines: Better late than never. and The longer you wait, the harder it gets.

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Andy Stitzer is a 40-year-old man who lives by himself with a comfortable, albeit dull, life, including a good job as an inventory clerk at an electronics store, and a vast collection of action figures that are decades old. His co-workers and friends discover that he is, in fact, a virgin, despite having an appealing, albeit shy and quiet, personality, and being quite handsome. Determined to help their friend embark on the journey to manhood, like getting drunk and scoring with babes, Andy's about to go on a perilous journey that he hadn't expected. As a result of this, he meets Trish (Catherine Keener) a single mom who just might be right for Andy.

Reaction

Based on an early review, Ebert & Roeper gave the film two thumbs up with Roger Ebert saying "I was surprised by how funny, how sweet, and how wise the movie really is" and "the more you think about it, the better The 40-Year-Old Virgin gets." However, there are minor criticisms: "the way she (Catherine Keener as "Trish") empathizes with is almost too sweet to be funny" - Roger Ebert and "I think it's a little too long" - Richard Roeper. Roeper awarded the movie as the tenth best of 2005.

The film ended up being one of the best reviewed comedies of 2005 with an 84% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

In December 2005, the film was chosen by the American Film Institute as one of the 10 greatest movies of the year, being not only among acclaimed favorites like King Kong, Brokeback Mountain, and Good Night, and Good Luck, but is the only actual comedy to have made the list (though some may consider The Squid and the Whale to be a comedy, it is considered a drama as well).

Box office success

The film opened at #1 ($21.4 million) at the box office, and repeating a #1 box office the following weekend. According to Box Office Mojo, the film earned about $109.3 million domestically in a 17-week release and about $59.5 million internationally, for a total of approximately $168.8 million worldwide. The film earned 17th place over all of 2005, as of January 3, 2006. The 40-Year-Old Virgin at Box Office Mojo

Trivia

• This is Steve Carell's first starring role in a feature film, his previous credits were as supporting characters (interestingly both newsmen) in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy as a dimwitted weatherman, and Bruce Almighty as an arrogant rival to Jim Carrey, who exacts his revenge in the film's most memorable scene.
• Steve Carell was filmed actually having his chest waxed. There were four cameras set up to capture the scene. Carell wanted the movie to have a realistic feel on love and life. He also added excessive language to his genuine reactions, sending his costars (including the waxer) into convulsive laughter.
• Additional scenes had to be filmed for the trailer, since so many of the film's actual scenes contain strong language.
• In January 2006, both Carell and director/co-writer Judd Apatow were nominated by the Writer's Guild of America for Best Original Screenplay, alongside Good Night, and Good Luck, The Squid and the Whale, Cinderella Man, and Crash.
• This film was originally rated NC-17 but was changed back to R on an appeal.
• The film was released three days after Carell's 42nd birthday.

Confusion over hyphens in the title

There has been some confusion as to the correct way to hyphenate the title of the movie, which is "The 40-Year-Old Virgin". The title has been confused as "The 40 Year-Old Virgin" by many, including the film's own producers. Some of the film's promotional posters, as well as the soundtrack CD for the movie are titled with the incorrect hyphenation. The incorrect hyphenation implies that there are 40 one-year old virgins instead of one 40-year-old virgin.

Also, in the actual film itself, the title of the movie appears in the opening credits as "The 40 Year Old Virgin," with no hyphenation at all.

Analysis of main character

The main character may serve as an accurate (yet comedic) example of an individual who suffers from love-shyness, a term used by psychologist Brian G. Gilmartin to describe a specific type of severe chronic shyness. According to Gilmartin definition, published in Shyness & Love: Causes, Consequences, and Treatments, love-shy people find it difficult to be assertive in informal situations involving potential romantic or sexual partners.

Both women and men can suffer from love-shyness, but it tends to impact men more than women. Because of gender roles in Western society, it may be possible for women to become involved in intimate relationships without needing to take any initiative.

There is some dispute as to whether Gilmartin's concept of love-shyness is anything more than a specific type of social phobia to which Gilmartin had given a name. Gilmartin was the only known proponent of this concept; no other books or scholars use the term.

It is also arguable, however, that the protagonist of The 40-Year-Old Virgin does not suffer from love-shyness. The movie contains comic flashbacks to Andy's earlier (disastrous) sexual experiences, which may indicate that these experiences, and not any endogenous psychological disorder, led to Andy's virginity. The flashbacks could, however, also be interpreted as simply dreams.

External links

• The 40-Year-Old Virgin official site
• The 40-Year-Old Virgin at IMDb
• Ebert & Roeper's Review at EbertAndRoeper.tv
• Interview with Steve Carell and Paul Rudd - from IGN
• Interview with Judd Apatow, Romany Malco and Seth Rogan - from IGN

• 2005 films
• Romantic comedy films