Knocked Up
Written and directed by Judd Apatow

Starring Seth Rogan, Katherine Heigl

 

Knocked Up

Well, I wonder what that's about? In case you hadn't heard, a floor manager for CNN, played by Katherine Heigl, gets drunk one night and sleeps with a guy for whom the word bong was invented, played by Seth Rogan. Of course she gets pregnant and decides that whatever his drawbacks - and he has lots - she's going to carry that baby to term. Well, of course - there wouldn't be a movie if she didn't, right? And she wants him to take on whatever it is fathers do - and he hasn't a clue - until the baby is born.

So - is he going to take on his responsibility? Are we going to see the evolution of a guy who has no money, no job and no prospects into someone who has, well, if not a backbone at least the good intentions of someone who does? Of course - the problem is that writer-director Judd Apatow hasn't left any wiggle-room for even one moment that's unexpected, or has a twist, or even something fresh. It's all laid out for us over the nine months of her pregnancy, with ultrasounds, yet, to mark the progression, so we can see more cute things he does as the time gets closer.

Now this is not a bad film, in the sense that "Pirates of the Caribbean" was this spring, with no wit, no plot, not even very much Johnny Depp. Rogan and Heigl are cute, they are so mismatched that it also becomes cute, but Rogan is so many light years behind Heigl that in reality he'll never catch up. He's got some friends who think they've got a sure thing for the internet - a website that has all naked celebrities on it. Apart from the fact that there's already one, that's about the limit of Rogan's ambition.

Of course there's more to "Knocked Up" than this. She has a sister, played by Leslie Mann (Apatow's wife) who thinks her husband (Paul Rudd) is cheating on her. What's he doing? He's out at a fantasy baseball league. But he's ashamed to tell her. So that's what Apatow has come up with in the way of subplots. Does it all come out okay? Is the pope German? Ya Vohl.

6/3/07