Sunday, September 13, 2015

2012 - THIS IS 40, a really long drawn out comedy

Since Judd Apatow wrote, directed and literally put his wife and daughters in this film the assumption would  be that this is an extremely autobiographical film.  It is also a long meandering film.


There is funny stuff but this film just goes on and on with really no plot to speak of.  Apatow also loaded up the supporting cast with a lot of actors that show up in films he has directed and produced.  This group is reminiscent of John Ford's famous stock company that constantly showed up in his films sometimes almost to an absurd level.  That's the same issue with this film.  Melissa McCarthy and Lena Dunham are friends of the director but when you stick them in your film their personalities rob the film of any verisimilitude.

The real family

Not a perfect film but not a failure either.  The film really needed more structure to it.  Apatow was probably too close to the subject matter to pull a really good film out of it.


133 minutes.

No comments: