This Is 40 [2012] ★★★

If you want to hate on Judd Apatow’s “This is 40” then go ahead. But get ready to be drowned out by the sound of laughter from the rest of us. Yes I laughed. Then I laughed some more. I’ll admit there’s something sitcom-trite about the setup. Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann) from “Knocked Up” are now turning 40. Basically the movie digs deeper into the emotional challenges they face everyday by trying to raise their two kids while running their own businesses and rather poorly. Talk about buzz kill. But Apatow, as he proved with his 2005 directing debut “The 40 Year Old Virgin” and other movies like “Funny People” and “Knocked Up”  transcends the usual multiplex traps  by anchoring what’s funny to what’s real. “This is 40” runs for 135 minutes, way long for a comedy, but there’s a reason that Apatow is still the king of comedy. He won’t settle for a few laughs. His jokes double back after the first laugh and hit you where it hurts. Leslie Mann (Apatow’s real life wife) plays her part with warmth that this cinematic stag party, loaded with penis jokes and wicked jabs at male dysfunction actually grows a heart. Don’t panic. The script, Written by Judd Apatow himself, keeps firing off rude, raucous laughs, enough to make you leave with a smile on your face. The man knows his shit because he knows that laughs fly higher and wilder when the characters keep it real. Without that, it’s all “Jack and Jill”.

Rating: 3/4