A review of 'This is 40'.

                                  This is 40. A movie starring Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann. Directed  and scripted by Judd Apatow.


      A fifty something woman outside the Cineplex Tinseltown Theatre in downtown Vancouver didn't like 'This Is 40'. "Too much swearing," she said. "And the story didn't turn me on." But fortunately her opinion didn't sway this viewer so I paid my $9 and seventy five cents and hobbled into the theatre. And I'm glad I did.
       Director Judd Apatow seems to stuff his films full of four letter words, crazy plot lines and his family. So 'This Is 40' doesn't differ from his past films in these ways. A sequel to 'Knocked Up' of 2007, 'This Is 40' features Paul Rudd playing Pete the hunkish husband of Debbie played by Leslie Mann.
      How can such a lovely looking Californian couple living in such a beautiful home in Los Angeles, have so many problems as they both turn forty?Well they just do. Debbie's father only shows up every seven years. Pete's dad, on the other hand, sees him too often. This sixty something father played by Albert Brooks keeps hitting up Pete for money, to support his young triplets.
    Then there's Pete and Debbie's children, ably played by Maud Apatow as Sadie and Iris Apatow who's Charlotte. Judd Apatow, as you may have guessed keeps all things in the family. Maud and Iris are his daughters, while Lesley Mann is his wife.
    "I am happy," a tearful Debbie tells her doctor when she finds out she's pregnant again. But her two daughters seem far from happy. They scrap and fight over everything just like their parents. Meanwhile Pete's music business may be going bust, while Debbie's dress store is being robbed by an employee. Pete and Debbie scream at each other nearly every day, while both of them carry bad habits . Debbie sneaks away sometimes to puff a cigarette, and Pete scarfs down cream puffs while no one's looking. And as that woman said to me before I went into the theatre, Debbie and Pete do swear.
     "People are strange," the late Jim Morrison, himself a Californian and sometime resident of Los Angeles once sang.. All the people in 'This Is 40' act strange. But then who knows? Maybe acting strange is the new normal. Still, 'This Is 40' is a great and funny film.  Judd Apatow, who directed the film and scripted it, is one very talented man and it helps that he had a talented cast to act out his script too. 
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