The 40-Year-Old Virgin

The 40-Year-Old Virgin is a 2005 American sex comedy film directed by Judd Apatow in his directorial debut. The film stars Steve Carell (who co-wrote the film's screenplay with Apatow) as the titular 40-year-old virgin Andy Stitzer, a stock supervisor at an electronics store and a toy hobbyist, whose friends resolve to help him lose his virginity. Catherine Keener and Paul Rudd also star. The screenplay features a great deal of improvised dialogue. The film was released theatrically in North America on August 19, 2005. It received positive reviews from critics and grossed $177 million worldwide.

Plot
Andy Stitzer is a 40-year-old virgin who lives alone, his apartment filled with his collection of action figures and video games. At a poker game with his co-workers David, Cal, Mooj and Jay, when conversation turns to past sexual exploits, they learn that Andy is still a virgin, and resolve to help him lose his virginity.

The men give Andy various and sometimes contradictory pieces of advice, both on his appearance and how to interact with women. Cal advises Andy to simply "ask questions", which he practices on attractive bookstore clerk Beth, who quickly becomes intrigued by him. David gives Andy his porn collection, encouraging him to masturbate. Mooj stresses to Andy the importance of love in a relationship.

Andy begins to socialize and form friendships with his co-workers. David, after running into his ex-girlfriend Amy, has an emotional breakdown at work. Store manager Paula promotes Andy to fill in for him.

Jay attempts to quicken the process by tricking Andy into meeting a prostitute. When Andy discovers the hooker is a transvestite, he insists that his friends stop trying to help him. Andy lands a date with Trish Piedmont, a woman he met on the sales floor. During Andy and Trish's first date, as they are about to have sex, they are interrupted by Trish's teenage daughter Marla. Trish suggests that they postpone having sex, and Andy enthusiastically agrees.

Andy's friends begin to encounter the consequences of their lifestyles. David, obsessed with Amy, takes a vow of celibacy. Jay, who previously boasted of his promiscuity, gets into an argument with a customer after his girlfriend breaks up with him over his infidelity. Jay concedes to Andy that sex can ruin a relationship.

Andy and Trish's relationship grows. Trish encourages Andy's dream of starting a business, suggesting they fund it by selling his collectibles. Andy takes Marla to a group session at a sexual health clinic, where she reveals she is a virgin. Andy, trying to defend her against derision, admits that he is also a virgin but is disbelieved and ridiculed. Marla later says that she knows Andy is a virgin, but agrees to let him tell Trish himself.

On the couple's twentieth date, the limit they agreed for their abstinence, Andy is still resistant, which upsets Trish. Trish demands he explain his reticence, and Andy accuses her of trying to change him against his will. He leaves for a nightclub where he meets his friends, gets drunk and praises them for encouraging him to have sex. Andy runs into Beth and they soon leave for her apartment. Marla convinces Trish to make up with Andy. By this time, Andy has sobered up and is having second thoughts. His friends arrive and encourage him to go back to Trish.

Andy returns to his apartment, where he finds Trish waiting for him. He attempts to apologize, but Trish, having found some of David's porn videos in his apartment, is now afraid that Andy may be some sort of sexual deviant. Andy tries to defend himself and declares his love for her, but she leaves in alarm and disgust. Andy chases after her on his bike, but collides with her car and flies through the side of a billboard truck. Trish rushes to his side, and Andy confides that he is a virgin as explanation for his behavior. Trish is surprised but relieved, and they kiss.

Later, Andy and Trish are married in a lavish ceremony with everyone in attendance, with a sidelong mention that Andy's action figures sold for over half a million dollars. Afterwards, they consummate the marriage, which transitions into a musical scene where the characters sing and dance to "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In".

Cast
In addition, Jonah Hill and Kevin Hart appear as eBay and Smart Tech customers, respectively. Mindy Kaling plays David’s ex at the speed dating event, where WCW wrestler Kimberly Page exposes her breast. Stormy Daniels has a cameo as herself, and Nancy Carell, Steve’s wife, plays the health clinic counselor.

Production
The film is based on a sketch Carell created while performing with the improv comedy troupe, Second City. Carell did many versions of the sketch, trying out different scenarios where the 40-year-old man is hiding a "big secret." Apatow had difficulty coming up with the ending for the film. Garry Shandling suggested it was important to show that Andy was having better sex because he was in love, and instead of directly showing the sex they decided to have Andy sing and have a musical number. Apatow started casting the film early in the development process and having no preconceptions about the friends and workers in the store was able to tailor the script to the strengths of the actors. Catherine Keener was the first choice for the female lead.

Production started on January 17, 2005, and wrapped on April 1, 2005. Production on the film was halted by Universal Pictures after the first week, due to concerns that the physical appearance of Carell's character resembled that of a serial killer, and that the early footage was not funny. Paul Rudd was criticized for being overweight and the studio was unhappy with how Apatow was "lighting [the film] like an indie". Universal had also refused to allow Apatow to cast Jason Segel in the film.

The chest waxing scene was done for real, with five cameras set up to capture the moment. The production used over a million feet of film, a milestone reached on the last day of filming and recognized with free champagne by Technicolor. Using the conversion of 90 feet of film per minute, this means that the shooting ratio for the film is 96:1 (96 feet shot for each foot used in the release after editing) for the theatrical version (84:1 for the unrated version).

The American Humane Association withheld its "no animals were harmed..." disclaimer due to the accidental deaths of several tropical fish used in the film.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 85% based on 184 reviews, with an average rating of 7.19/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Steve Carell's first star turn scores big with a tender treatment of its titular underdog, using raunchy but realistically funny comedy to connect with adult audiences." Rotten Tomatoes declared it the "Best Reviewed Comedy of 2005." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 73 out of 100 based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

Ebert and Roeper gave the film a "two thumbs up" rating. Roger Ebert said, "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." The pair gave minor criticisms, with Ebert describing "the way she (Catherine Keener as 'Trish') empathizes with Andy" as "almost too sweet to be funny" and Richard Roeper saying that the film was too long, and at times extremely frustrating. Roeper later chose the film as the tenth best of 2005. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the movie an A-, saying that Carell "plays him [Andy] in the funniest and most surprising way possible: as a credible human being." Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called the film a "charmingly bent comedy," noting that Carell conveys a "sheer likability" and a "range as an actor" that was "crucial to making this film work as well as it does." Emanuel Levy gave the film a B+ grade calling it "Raunchier and funnier than Wedding Crashers, this is an R-rated comedy that despite crude surface and foul lingo has a generous heart and a sweet, almost naive center."

Brian Lowry of Variety wrote: "Crude, sophomorically homophobic but frequently funny, pic also overstays its welcome a bit and indulges in some juvenile excesses. All told, though, The 40 Year Old Virgin delivers enough belly laughs." Lou Lumenick of the New York Post gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, and called it "A calculating crowd-pleaser aimed squarely at the under-25 crowd, who can feel free to add a star or two to my rating." Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post is critical of the film but praised Carell for his performance: "the most surprising thing about "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" may be that despite the flagrantly exploitative and gratuitous efforts of his friends, Andy remains steadfastly chaste and genuinely humane. [...] Carell has succeeded in creating a character of old-fashioned decency in a movie that otherwise flouts it at every turn."

The film was criticized by Harry Forbes of Catholic News Service for promoting "the false premise that there's something intrinsically wrong with an unmarried man being sexually inexperienced," and by political columnist Cal Thomas for being an example of societal decline in regards to "self control or what was once known as purity."

Box office
The film was a summer hit, and opened at No. 1 at the box office, grossing $21,422,815 during its opening weekend, and stayed at No. 1 the following weekend. The film grossed a total of $109,449,237 at the domestic market, and $67,929,408 internationally, for a total of $177,378,645. The film was 25th in global gross, and 19th in the United States that year. The film was released in the United Kingdom on September 2, 2005, and topped the country's box office that weekend.

Accolades
In December 2005, the film was chosen by the American Film Institute as one of the ten best movies of the year, the only comedy film to be so recognized (though the comedy-drama The Squid and the Whale was also chosen). The film was also ranked No. 30 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies.

Home media
On home video the film was released with an additional 17 minutes under the banner "unrated". For the 100th Anniversary of Universal the theatrical edition was released on Blu-ray. This version also had a similar banner of "unrated".