= 4 stars

Starring Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd
Directed by Judd Apatow

Amazon Link

This movie made me laugh, several times, hard - at the characters but then a bit harder because I was really laughing at myself. I’d describe Knocked Up as equal parts “chick flick” and “guy flick” and heavy dose of crass film humor in the vein of American Pie.

The film follows Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) and her marriage-worn sister on one side and Ben Stone (Seth Rogan) and his goofy friends on the other. They hook up at a dance club and Alison is soon pregnant by Ben, who initially looks to have very little father material.

On the female side we get comedic worries about Ben’s ability to be a dedicated dad, support the baby, or whether the men cheating, while the guy’s perspective is obsessed with drugs, the changing nature of sex, and shirking familial responsibilities for as long as possible.

Both Heigl and Rogen do a great job creating characters that I alternately laughed at and felt sorry for. Heigl shows a range that’s in weekly evidence on Grey’s Anatomy and Rogen is an Apatow regular who improves with each outing.

There’s also some insight into post-birth married life through Allison’s sister Debbie (Leslie Mann) and her husband Pete (Paul Rudd). Debbie piles on awkward abuse on husband Pete - such foul filth coming out of a perky blond. Pete is so domesticated it’s scary - sneaking off for fantasy baseball as a stress-release from his dutiful child-rearing. I also found extremely funny the “you can’t go to India after you’re married” and “so go to India” conversation every married couple has had - to which the unmarried couple looks at each other and thinks “are we really signing up for this?”

What I ultimately received from Knocked Up was a light-hearted look at the different life-stages we’re sometimes forced through (perhaps literally as a newborn), and how they change us - usually for the better - as we try to retain some semblance of our individuality. I’ve heard that becoming a parent means no longer being the most important thing in your life - but you become a better person as you learn to put other lives above your own. Good films can be about change - seeing characters react, adapt, and transform, and our entertainment comes from experiencing their emotions along with them.

The only awkward aspect of Knocked Up is a fair amount of rather crass humor which is not exactly my cup of tea (perhaps we were watching the “Unrated” version?) - but overall, the laughs outweighed my groans. I strongly recommend you get Knocked Up.

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