It's good. Go see it. Bring a girl if you can so you don't feel guilty when you do (Of course for women, this obviously doesn't apply and neither does the need to bring a guy, unless you want a warm fuzzy feeling and so on and so forth).

Knocked Up manages to bridge the gap between a honey-sweet plot line of a love story between two fundamentally different people - essentially, a Beauty and the Beast sort of thing - and all the misunderstandings and failures that result from this initially unfortunate circumstance. Alison Scott is a beautiful, up-and-coming entertainment television host suddenly stunned with the realization that Ben Stone, an unemployed, weed-smoking illegal Canadian ex-patriot trying to establish a Mr. Skin look-a-like website, impregnated her (Mr. Skin I suppose tracks what movies have nudity in them and at what times. It's not porn). The contrast in personalities is highlighted somewhat stereotypically by the physical appearances of the two characters. Alison is statuesque, blonde, and emanating an alluring, understated female sexuality. Ben is a chubby Jewish guy with curly hair and funny facial features. She decides to keep the baby, and Ben decides to support her in whatever she does.

But as the title implies, Knocked Up has a racy edge to it that lightens the satisfying (but sometimes a little too quaint) romance plot line through the hilarious depiction of a collection of lazy, drifting, unattractive males and their crude antics and habits. As much as it explores the needs of women and the hardships they face as they face pregnancy, the movie also playfully engages the American male subculture of records, weed, and movies with nudity in them. It's hilarious, and the script is smart and accurate. But it does more than that as well: Knocked Up reveals the inherent tensions between men and women in relationships and the insecurities/problems that they face as they grow older, raise children, and try to stay true to themselves and each other. It's poignant, and coupled with its hilarity, the discussion rings true and honest - at least to me.

On a personal level, the feeling at the end is mixed. I am a pretty isolated guy, and I don't like the idea of relationships/commitment/etc at all. Movies like this - when well done - somehow act as a subversive riptide that makes me want to get a girlfriend anyway. I blame biology for trying to mess up my pace, but don't worry, it won't get me. I would have felt a lot lighter - like a singing sparrow in spring - if I did have a girl on my arm, I'll admit that much.

My only problem with the movie is that it tries to do a little too much, and thus, the ending cannot possibly tie together all of the various quips and details. Scenes that mention a particular interview sequence that Alison will do are never mentioned, the couple's parents are introduced but not developed, and so on. They are trivial things, but the movie would have been much more cohesive and controlled if they didn't try to include the ideas that they just didn't have the time to resolve. As such, the ending suggested that the movie had sprawled a little too much.

Labels: movies, musings