Knocked Up (2007)

First of all an apology for not posting a review for almost a week now. I have many excuses, none of which you will be interested in I'm sure. Fortunately I have been keeping up with my film watching! OK back to business...

Knocked up stars Seth Rogan as man-child Ben. He drinks, smokes way too much weed, hangs around with his stoner mates all day, refuses to get a job and plans to make his millions by setting up a website that shows where in movies you can see some naked flesh. All in all a fun guy to hang around with maybe, but not the kind of person you would think capable of bringing up a child. He meets Alison (Katherine Heigl) on a drunken night out. In an almost unbelievable twist he manages to get her into bed, punching so far above his weight it was akin to Jimmy Crankie fighting Andre the Giant. Weeks later he gets the dreaded phone call from Alison announcing she is carrying his child.

This film draws on elements from several different genres. We have a stoner comedy, romance and drama. What it does well is merge all three of these so that there is a little bit of something for everyone, with the biggest emphasis on the comedy. Rogan is his typical chaotic self. A man possessed of constant verbal diharrea, who bumbles through life in his own little world. Rogan is so adept at playing this part I almost believe he is like this all the time. If you were to go around his house now you might expect him to really be smoking weed with his head in a goldfish bowl or boxing with giant flaming gloves on (see the intro to this film to see what I mean)!

Aside from the usual humour from Rogan and his gang of friends we have a story about a woman struggling to come to terms with an unexpected pregnancy and a new relationship (more out of duty at first) with a man with little prospects and even less of a clue! There is always an air of inevitability with the storyline but there are enough laughs here to make that unimportant. As a bit of a film geek there was also enough film references made to keep my eyes glued to the screen. Everyone will spot the Back to the Future and Star wars references but will they notice Swingers or Taxi Driver?

I thought this was a very well made film despite the obvious story. It effortlessly rises above being a vulgar comedy (which it is in places and a bloody funny one at that) with moments of real clarity. The novelty of it is that it has people dealing with things that any parent can relate to. Not so much in the 'having a baby with someone you just met' way but in the many other hopes and fears that come along with pregnancy or simply growing up. More than once I found myself shaking my head with embarrassed recognition at Ben's antics. Rogan's immensely likeable performance and the often brilliant script really make this a film worth watching.

7/10